


Once Upon a Pointe

by Gluten_Full



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Age Difference, All Adults, F/M, Luke is a piece of shit, Slow Burn, Verbal Abuse, age difference is all in mentions/flashbacks, all mortal, all the bad stuff is in the end of chap 4 and chap 5, ballet dancer au, revenge porn, see notes individual chapter notes for more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23779669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gluten_Full/pseuds/Gluten_Full
Summary: "'Annabeth, you’re with Percy,' Chiron said. Annabeth. She looked like the figurine in a little girl’s music box had come to life to dance in City Ballet. Percy felt like every opportunity to dance with her was a privilege. Just don’t forget the choreography, Percy thought as he got into the right starting spot for the wedding pas de deux. Don’t forget the choreography, and don’t drop her."Percy is a soloist with the ballet company, and he is offered one chance to dance with Annabeth, one of their star principals. If he nails the choreography, he might just earn a chance to dance with her. And, if he's really lucky, he might get a date out of it as well.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan/Annabeth Chase, Silena Beauregard/Charles Beckendorf (background)
Comments: 65
Kudos: 195





	1. Once Upon a Dream

“Alright Percy, you’re up,”

Percy looked at his artistic director, Chiron Bruner, who was looking back at him with a deadly seriousness.

He had been standing in the back of the rehearsal room, not dancing, for days as Chiron tried to cast their company’s upcoming production of Tchaikovsky’s _The Sleeping Beauty._

Percy knew from the minute he had been brought into the room that he wasn’t a favorite for the Prince, the male principal role. As a first soloist, he had had opportunities to play principal roles (a few times even in the first cast), but big classical ballets like _The Sleeping Beauty_ were long, intense pieces that drew in big crowds and, more importantly, big donors. Big name stars like Charles Beckendorf were always shoo-ins for principal roles and first cast spots.

In fact, Beckendorf had pretty much been guaranteed the spot until his knee popped when he landed a jump last week. He was out for the season at least.

Percy was the fifth man they brought into the room to start learning the choreography. Of the five of them, four would lead a cast (first cast would open their run of the show), and the fifth would likely be an understudy.

It wasn’t a good sign that it had taken four days for Percy to be offered the opportunity to dance at all. If he was getting the chance now, it was his only shot.

He had been watching the choreography for days and practicing it alone in his apartment at night (a challenge without a partner, but he made do). He hoped that was enough to get it into his body. He did a few small jumps and rolled his shoulders to make sure his muscles were warm before stepping into the center of the room.

“Annabeth, you’re with Percy,” Chiron said.

 _Annabeth._ She looked like the figurine in a little girl’s music box had come to life to dance in City Ballet. She was stunning – long arms, legs, and neck, beautiful blonde hair, and sharp features. Percy couldn’t even think of a time she had so much as fallen out of a turn.

Nothing was ever set with ballet casting – Chiron could like a pair better than another, or a dancer could get hurt – but if Percy was betting man, he’d bet that Annabeth was already set (in Chiron’s mind at least) as first cast Aurora.

Being able to dance with her was a privilege. She was only a year older than him, but she had been in the company for a decade already. She had been offered her apprenticeship at sixteen. He’d only been there for seven years, earning his apprenticeship at eighteen. She was made soloist the next year – the same year he entered the corps.

Last year, they had been slotted to dance Balanchine’s Diamonds pas de deux in _Jewels._ But she dropped out a week before the performance. All he got out of Chiron was that she was dealing with a personal loss and would be taking a short leave from the company.

Silena, the woman who ran the costume shop, seemed to know everything, though. “Dancers like to talk to me or around me,” she told him.

“So, what happened?” He didn’t want to pry, but he wanted to know if she was okay. He hadn’t had may opportunities to dance with her, but everyone was close in a company. They had talked, they had shared barre space. She’d even used his foam roller once.

Silena pinned some fabric on his doublet into place, “She broke off her engagement,” she said.

“What?” He asked, turning so quickly that Silena accidentally poked him with the pin.

“Stand still,” She said, adjusting her measurements again.

“What happened?” He asked, being sure to stand still and composed.

“That I can’t tell you,”

“You don’t know?” He asked.

“No,” she said, “I know. It’s just … really not great,”

“And it’s not your place,” Percy said, finishing the sentence for her. Silena nodded and finished her alterations.

It had been nine months since _Jewels,_ and Annabeth had been back for months and dancing better than Percy had ever seen. Her ex-fiancé, Luke, had retired just before her comeback and had moved out west. It was a young retirement – he was only thirty-three – but Percy had never liked him. (“Yeah, and your dislike of him has nothing to do with your major crush on her,” his best friend, Grover, said after Percy admitted his schadenfreude at hearing about their breakup and Luke’s retirement. Percy tried to deny it, but Grover knew him too well for that. “Crush on her or not,” he said, “I still think he was a dick,”)

Nine months later, and Annabeth was walking towards him the rehearsal room, already looking like a young and beautiful princess. _Just don’t forget the choreography,_ he thought as he got into the right starting spot for the wedding pas de deux, _don’t forget the choreography, and don’t drop her._

Throughout his life, people had critiqued Percy for acting without thinking – jumping to action without considering all the options or the consequences. That had gotten him into trouble when he was younger, but in dance it proved to be his strength. He was able to turn his brain off when he danced. He didn’t have to think step-by-step; his brain heard the music and his body knew what to do. He let his body move on its own and used the extra mind space to focus on his artistry.

 _This is your wedding day,_ he told himself as they began. _You met her in a dream and saved her from a curse. This is fairytale love. Show Chiron how much you love Aurora._

He was lucky. It wasn’t hard to pretend to love Annabeth Chase.

Most days, he loved being in a Balanchine company – the arrangements, even for classical ballets, were faster and more exciting. Typically, this suited his ADHD. But as he supported her in the final signature fish dive, he wished they were dancing in London or Moscow just so he could enjoy a slower arrangement and let this moment last longer.

But, of course, that couldn’t happen. All he could do was wait for the music to end, before gently lifting her out of the dive and back on to her feet.

She was smiling at him. _That has to be good, right?_ He thought. Annabeth, of course, had no say over casting, but she knew good ballet when she saw it.

Chiron was a master of the poker face, though. He just nodded at them and said “Good,” before calling an end to the day.

Percy went to the side of the room where his dance bag was to grab his water.

“Good job today,”

He looked up and saw Annabeth sitting down next to him to take off her pointe shoes.

“Thanks. You make it easy. You’re a great partner,” he said. He moved a little back towards the center of the room, looking for a place to stretch.

She joined him soon after, pointe shoes replaced with warm-ups. 

“I don’t think I ever apologized for leaving you high and dry with Diamonds last year,” she said.

Percy shrugged casually. “Don’t worry about it. Piper’s a great partner. I think we managed to pull it off,”

Annabeth nodded, sliding into her split and bending forward over her front leg. “You guys did a great job,” she told him.

Percy looked at her. “You came to see it?”

Annabeth nodded before bending backwards towards her other leg. “I didn’t stop loving dance just because I wasn’t doing it,”

Percy smiled, “Well, I’m glad you're back. Things weren’t the same around here without you,”

“I’m glad to be back,” she said, coming out of her split. “I hope we get to work together again soon,”

Percy tried to think of something funny or kind to say in response, but after hearing Annabeth express a genuine desire to work with him, he could really only manage to pull of something articulate: “Me too,”

~*~*~

Percy found himself humming along to _The Sleeping Beauty_ score as he made dinner that night, dancing around his kitchen like he used to when he was a child. He still wasn’t confident that he’d be chosen as a prince for any of the casts, but he couldn’t help but daydream about dancing the ballet with Annabeth. If, for nothing else, the opportunity to dance with such an artful and technically skilled dancer. Sure, all the women in the company had good artistry and technicality – they’d mad it into the company for a reason – but Annabeth was something else.

The next day, Chiron had Percy and Annabeth run the pas de deux one more time, and then he had him run it with Reyna. _Three chances,_ he thought, _maybe that will be good enough for Chiron._

Annabeth didn’t say anything to him afterwards, choosing instead to stretch near some of the other women on the other side of the room. He didn’t take it personally; it wasn’t like they were close friends. 

As he left the studio to head home, he passed a room with just Chiron, Annabeth, and one of their ballet mistresses. Percy recognized the dance already – Aurora's act one variation. _That’s it then,_ he thought, _she’s going to be first cast for sure._

He wanted her to succeed. Of course he did. But there was a small part of him that hoped that, if he didn’t get first cast, maybe she wouldn’t either. First cast didn’t really mean anything, anyway. It was more for reviews and promo photos. Every cast danced the ballet. The only thing that changed was who you danced it with. With only his three chances next to all the other men’s four, five, six, or seven chances, he was not going to land any higher than third cast.

That was if he got a cast at all.

Percy tried not to worry about it too much as he walked to the subway. If they were both lucky, he and Annabeth both had at least another decade of dancing left. There would be plenty of time for partnering.

 _But she’s going to be a beautiful Aurora,_ he though.

_~*~*~_

Percy sipped his coffee as he walked into the studio the next morning. He headed towards the office where he knew the cast list would be posted.

It was old fashioned to post the cast lists on a bulletin board outside Chiron’s office like they were in some high school theater not a world-class ballet company, but Chiron had always been old fashioned.

He started reading from the bottom and made his way to the top, never the optimist about his own chances. He made his way through the third cast without seeing his name at all.

His heart rate started to rise as he became more and more sure that he hadn’t been cast at all.

Not in the second cast. That was it then. Nothing.

He looked at the first cast to confirm his suspicions about Annabeth.

There she was, at the top of the list:

_Aurora: Annabeth Chase._

He almost dropped his coffee when he looked at the line below:

_Prince Désiré: Percy Jackson._


	2. Adagio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Work begins on The Sleeping Beauty. 
> 
> Links to the specific dances mentioned in this chapter are in the end notes.

Percy didn’t need to be at the rehearsal for the Rose Adagio, but he had nowhere else to be for two hours. Might as well get more acquainted with the ballet.

The adagio was iconic. The ballerina had to balance in _en pointe_ on one foot for what seemed like an eternity, using only her own balance, core strength, and the occasional supporting hand from one of the four princes. She had to do that twice.

With few exceptions, men didn’t go on pointe, so Percy couldn’t image ever pulling something off like that. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he could do that on demi pointe.

Annabeth hardly seemed to have any issue with the balances, though, standing firm through the first pass of it, before continuing the five-minute dance. The second promenade was harder than the first, with each prince turning her around as she stayed _en pointe_ , switching between the four princes, each with their own turn.

When she went up for the second set of balances, Percy could tell that she was off her leg by the way she seemed to hold on tightly to her partner’s hand as they went around and how quickly she brought her arm up and back down out of fifth position before taking the next prince’s hand. It didn’t have to be perfect – this was only the second day of rehearsal since choreography finished, and performances were rarely perfect. But Percy knew from dancing with her that Annabeth had different standards for herself.

Percy held his breath when the third prince walked up. He was a young dancer. He’d only been offered his corps contract a few weeks before rehearsals started, and he didn’t seem to be the strongest partner yet. But Chiron made choices like that sometimes; he threw younger dancers into a bigger role as a trial by fire. It made some of them better dancers, and it had broken some of the others.

Annabeth was probably ready to kill Chiron for putting this dancer in that spot about now. Percy could tell that he was distracted, leaving Annabeth to partner herself for most of the dance. He had the same issue as he partnered her around the promenade.

“Stay with her, Leo!” Chiron yelled from the side. Typically, if Chiron wanted to give a note, he’d stop the pianist and the dancers to correct something. It was rare for him to yell notes as during the dance.

Chiron’s comment only pulled Leo’s attention farther away from Annabeth. He stopped the turn short and released her hand before he was sure that she was ready to move on to the next prince. Annabeth knee and shoulders quivered as she fought to find her balance, before losing it, dropping out of her _releve._

Percy winced for her as he watched her foot drop. Such a small action was a big mistake in the adagio. Audience members rarely noticed choreography mishaps. As long as a dancer stayed on their feet, they could adapt or change choreography on the spot if they needed to. No one ever had a perfect show, but the audience never knew the difference. But the adagio balances were one of the rare moments in ballet that had to be precise, because even an audience member unfamiliar with the ballet would notice if the ballerina falls out of the balance when she isn’t supposed to.

And Annabeth Chase wasn’t supposed to.

She popped back onto _releve_ to continue, but Chiron called for the music to stop. She dropped out of her pose, taking a few deep breaths. Leo stepped towards the back of the room, clearly embarrassed. He stared at the back of Annabeth’s head like she was the high school bully ready to beat him up in the parking lot. 

_He is a high school kid,_ Percy remembered. He was only eighteen. Percy knew Chiron well as a director and mentor. There was a good chance that Chiron remembered Leo’s age and took pity on him. Percy wasn’t too sure about Annabeth, though.

“Let’s try that again. This time, Leo, stay with her. She needs your support to get through this,” Chiron said. He gave a few more detailed instructions to all the princes’, and then a few notes to Annabeth, who took them with a gracious nod, before going up again, this time for a more gracious set of turns.

~*~*~

Chiron called for a short break before they started running some of the act two sequences.

Annabeth walked over to one of the barres on the side of the room and started stretching as she caught her breath.

Percy walked up to her, hoping he didn’t bother her too much.

“What’s up, Percy?” she asked before he could say anything. She seemed annoyed, but not annoyed with him, which was a good sign.

Percy cleared his throat. “I just wanted to say that I know act one is really hard for Aurora,” Annabeth’s cheeks flushed, and Percy back peddled. “I mean, it’s hard for every Aurora. It’s one of the hardest –”

“What do you want?” She said. Now she did sound annoyed with him.

“I just wanted to say that if there’s anything I can do to make act two and three easier for you, please let me know,”

She glared at him. An “I’m going to kill you” glare, an “I will snap you like a twig” glare, an “I will have my husband hire a hitman to smash your knees with a baton to end your career” glare. Percy suddenly regretted every decision he had ever made between his first ballet class at the YMCA and that moment.

“Do you really want to help me?” She asked him.

“Yeah,”

She turned away from the barre to face him. “Then do your job,” she said, before turning away from him.

~*~*~

Percy hung around Piper, their Lilac Fairy, for the rest of rehearsal. The last thing he needed was to annoy Annabeth more as they worked on the dream sequence.

Their progress was slow. Chiron seemed to stop them every few steps to give a note.

“Piper, you’ve really got to convince this guy to come save the princess.” “Annabeth, charm him. You need him to wake you up.” “Percy, be a little less sure of yourself in the beginning. You don’t know who this woman is. Some fairy just showed up in the woods and told you to go after this dream girl. It’s going to take some convincing.”

Percy took in all of the notes and did his best to apply them right away. _Just do your job,_ he told himself.

“Before we end for the day,” Chiron said, “Percy, I want to run your variation from the top of act two,”

Percy nodded and stepped to the center of the room. The variation was slow and emotional. It was more about artistry than technical skill. It wasn’t an exciting one, but it was a chance for Percy to show off to Chiron that he could do more than jump high in the air. And Percy knew it was artistry that got you promoted to principal.

Chiron watched him throughout the dance, not interrupting him for notes. When he finished, he glanced at Annabeth, who was leaning against the barre, smiling at him.

Chiron had a number of notes and corrections for him but was generally complimentary.

“Alright, go home, rest. Tomorrow we’re going to finish working acts one and two,”

“Percy,” he heard Annabeth say as he walked towards his dance bag. He turned around to look at her.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“I wanted to apologize for being kind of bitchy earlier,” she said.

Percy smiled, “It’s alright. Things get intense sometimes, I get it. But seriously,” Percy said, “you shouldn’t worry about shit like that. You’re the best dancer here,”

Annabeth just shook her head in response. “See you tomorrow,” she said, smiling at him before walking out of the studio.

~*~*~

Percy walked out of the rehearsal room after doing his stretches and nearly collided with a familiar figure.

“Watch where you’re going, you don’t want to end up like me,” Beckendorf said, shaking one of his crutches at Percy.

“Beck!” Percy said, smiling wide. “What are you doing here?”

“Got tired of sitting at home feeling bad for myself, so I figured I’d come here to bad about myself in the company of my wife,” He said.

“I’m sure Silena loves that,” Percy said.

Beckendorf gave him a slight shove. “Come on, we’ve got a hot tea for you downstairs,” he said, leading Percy towards the costume shop.

“I’m sure you’ve had a long day of rehearsals,” Beckendorf said to Percy as they went headed to the costume shop in the studio elevator, “but I wanted to see how things were going,”

“Things are good. Rehearsals got a little intense today, but I think it’s coming together,” Percy told him.

“I’m sure it will be great when it goes up,” Beckendorf said. Percy opened the costume shop door for Beckendorf and followed him inside. “Hello gorgeous,” Beckendorf called into the room. Silena appeared behind a rack of costumes.

“Took you long enough. The tea might be cold my now,” she said.

Beckendorf hobbled over to her. She met him halfway, tilting her head up so that he could kiss her more easily. When they broke apart, he apologized, “I don’t move very quickly these days,”

They sat down around the table, sipping their tea as Percy told them about the ballets practice.

“Pretty sure Leo thought he was going to be fired on the spot this afternoon,” Percy said.

“Poor kid. It’s not easy to keep up with Annabeth,” Silena said.

“I know, she’s …” Percy trailed off and felt himself smiling thinking about her.

“Well, look at that, Percy’s in love,” Beckendorf joked.

“I am not,”

“Better that you aren’t,” Silena said. “I doubt she’s ever going to date company men again,”

“I don’t want to date her,” Percy lied. “And why wouldn’t she date company men again?”

Silena looked at him like he was stupid. “Come on,” she said, asking him to think about it himself.

“Was her breakup really that bad?” Percy asked.

Beckendorf looked at him, a dark, serious look in his eyes. “It was. It was really fucked up too,”

“What happened?” Percy asked.

“Still can’t tell you,” Silena said. “Just … don’t get your hopes up with her. She might not even be ready to date again yet. I mean … they were together since she was what? Twenty?”

“Yeah,” Beckendorf answered, “it was right before she was promoted to soloist,”

Percy traced the timeline of Annabeth’s career in his head. “Was he a principal when they started dating?”

“Yeah,” Beckendorf answered.

Percy nodded and stared at his teacup. He thought about her frustration during the Rose Adagio and the way she never seemed to take his compliments. “Did people give her shit for that?” He asked, “I mean, did they think that she got promoted just because –“

“Some people did, yeah,” SIlena answered.

“Obviously they were wrong,” Beckendrof added, “she’s a fantastic dancer, and she’s earned everything she’s ever gotten but –”

“-- Couple those rumors with the end of a six-year-long relationship, and …” she trailed off, but Percy was smart enough to get her meaning. Annabeth was determined to prove herself, prove to the company that she deserved these opportunities, and this ballet was the chance to do that. That didn’t leave a lot of space for guys in general, especially not company guys.

Percy suddenly felt a lot closer to Annabeth. She’d always seemed so untouchable, unshakeable. But she was probably feeling the pressure of this ballet as badly as he was.

He didn’t have a lot of fancy dance training before joining their company’s ballet school at fifteen. He started dancing at the Y when he was ten. Most of his colleagues had started dancing at three, four, or five years old. He’d gotten lucky (very lucky) with a few scholarships and grants along the way, but he knew most of the people in the company and at the school thought he was a wild card. Until his promotion, only Chiron and his mom really believed in him. And now, if he could do this ballet right, he might just make principal. This was his shot. 

_You shouldn’t be worried about dating either,_ he told himself, _just do your job._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have planned out the rest of this story. Right now, I'm anticipating it caping out at 12 chapters, with the later chapters being a bit longer. 
> 
> The next chapter will have more Annabeth, as well as some Sally. 
> 
> Watch the Rose Adagio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4aLIeg2Mik  
> Watch the Prince's variation (skip to 1:09:15) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6eA4PjWhws&t=4802s  
> Watch the dream scene (skip to 1:10:40): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6eA4PjWhws&t=4802s


	3. Make It Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry in advance that this chapter is a wall of dialogue. 
> 
> Also, in the coming weeks I'll be updating the tags to this story. I wrote and published the first chapter without knowing where this was going to go (like a professional), and now I actually have a story plan. The next two chapters are going to deal with some darker themes as you find out what happened between Luke and Annabeth, so I will be updating the tags accordingly. I will also be putting warning for any chapter-specific triggers in the notes, so be sure to check those as well. 
> 
> I'm quite nervous about the next two chapters, as I don't usually write angst in fanfiction, so wish me luck.

When Percy stepped into his favorite coffee shop before rehearsal, he spotted a familiar shade of blonde hair ordering in front of him. Even with her hair down under a winter hat he was sure it was her (her black dance bag with AEC monogramed on the side also helped him identify her). He stepped up to the counter to stand next to her, as he handed the barista his card.

“Hers is on me,” he said, before adding his own coffee order on.

“Oh no –“ she tried to protest, her cheeks pink from the cold weather.

“I insist,” Percy said, nodding to the cashier to run his card.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Annabeth said as they grabbed their coffees to head towards the studio.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Besides, what kind of Prince Charming would I be if I didn’t buy you coffee?” 

Annabeth laughed and sipped her drink. “I’ve never met a dancer so dedicated to method acting,”

To prove his point, Percy jogged up the stairs to the door of the studio and pulled it open for her before she could make it halfway up the stair. “After you, ma’am,” he said, going into a dramatic deep bow.

“Thank you, sir,” she said, curtseying just a little as the walked in.

~*~*~*~

Percy’s finger hovered over the ‘send’ button, trying to decide if sending Annabeth a YouTube video on why the Barbie Sawn Lake movie is the best movie of all time was a good idea. He didn’t even know if she had liked the Barbie movies as a kid.

If he had to guess, she was either the girl who had them all in a pristine Dream House, or the kid who cut their hair and drew on their faces. Either way, though, the video could work. And it wasn’t like he wanted to talk to her about Barbie, he just wanted to talk to her outside of the studio.

He had no idea where he stood with her. He was pretty sure they were becoming friends, or at least work friends. But their work required them to touch all the time, look lovingly into each other’s eyes, and kiss, which really blurred the lines between work-friend, just a friend, and friends who are flirting.

He had been following Beckendorf’s advice and not actively perusing anything with her. Buying her coffee had been a friendly one-time gesture and sending her a funny YouTube video was the kind of harmless thing that friends would do.

And they were friends, at least work friends. She smiled easily around him and laughed at his dumb jokes. She certainly did more than tolerate him. Annabeth didn’t strike him as the kind of woman who would fake being nice to someone she didn’t like; in fact, he had anecdotal proof that she wasn’t like that.

Still, they had never texted each other before, other than to confirm a rehearsal or check choreography. 

His resolve crumbled, and he deleted the text.

~*~*~*~

Percy was sore all over. He’d stopped being about to feel his legs somewhere around hour six, but they were coming to the end of hour eight now.

It was a good kind of sore. A kind of sore he only felt after a good, intense day of dancing. It was still the kind of sore that made him want to go home and take an ice bath and fall asleep listening to anything other than classical music. But a good sore.

When the music ended, he and Annabeth parted, both breathing heavily.

“Great job you guys,” Chiron said. Annabeth smiled wide at Percy. “Go home and get some rest. We still have some work to do before we move to dress rehearsals,”

 _Dress rehearsals._ They moved to the theater in a week, which meant the show went up in two weeks. Percy’s heart began to race as he realized how little time there was left to go.

Before Percy got the chance to tell Annabeth how great she had done that day, Piper ran up between the two of them, throwing one arm over either of their shoulders.

“You guys looked so good up there!” She said. “Have you gotten to try on your costumes yet? Because I tried mine on yesterday and it is gawdy, and borderline camp, and everything I’d want in a fairy,"

Annabeth snuck her way out from under Piper’s arm. “I tried on my act one costume yesterday. It’s the big pink tutu with roses on it. I look like a storybook ballerina,”

 _As opposed to all the other days,_ Percy thought, _when you’re just a regular beautiful woman in a tutu._

~*~*~*~

Percy took the risk of looking creepy as hell and waited for Annabeth to change before heading home. It had gotten dark hours ago, and he didn’t want her to walk to the subway alone if she didn’t have to.

“Hey,” she said when she saw him waiting, “what’s up?”

“It’s, uh, pretty dark out, and I wanted to see if you’d like me to walk you to the subway?” His face felt hot.

Annabeth just smiled and nodded. “Sure. I take the 1 train,”

“No shit, so do I,” Percy said as they walked out the door and into the cold New York City street. That was kind of a dumb thing to say, he realized. The closest subway station only ran the 1 and the 2. It wasn’t completely surprising that she’d take that train. But maybe she found absolute idiocy charming. He could hope so, at least. “Uptown or downtown?”

“Way down,” Annabeth said. “West fourth. You?”

He shrugged and smiled, “Uptown, west _one-hundred_ and fourth,” he said. “How’d you end up so far downtown?”

Annabeth shrugged. “I liked the area, and … well Luke really wanted to get out of midtown,” she smiled. “I hope Portland is far enough for him,” she said that softly, like she was pretending that Percy wasn’t supposed to hear her. 

“So, you’re there alone now?” He hoped that didn’t sound creepy.

“Yup. It’s actually been pretty nice,” she paused before adding, “besides if I get lonely, I can just put on a podcast and pretend there are other people around,”

Percy began to smile as an idea formed in his head. “Well, if you want someone to hang out with or if you want a nice home cooked meal, you can come over to my place on Sunday. My mom and I are excellent chefs.” He bragged humbly, hoping she’d agree to the invite. 

“You live with you mom?” Annabeth asked.

Percy blushed, “Yeah, but not in like a weird Greek tragedy way or a sad way,” he clarified. “My mom and stepdad way undercharge for rent, and they are saving the rent money I give them to help save for my little sister’s college, and since my mom is one hell of a cook, … it works out for everyone,” Percy said a little too quickly. “Plus, my mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the entire world, so you need to come just for those.”

“I don’t think you want me eating too many cookies before we have to do all of these lifts,” she said.

“Don’t worry,” Percy promised, “all the food my mom makes has no calories.”

Annabeth laughed as they made their way down the subway stairs. “Well, how could I pass up a good meal with no calories?” She turned to face him. “That would be great though. I can’t cook for shit. Well, I mean, I could cook if I wanted to, I’m not an idiot. I just hate doing it.”

Percy’s heart did little flips in his chest as they pushed through the turnstiles, about to go in opposite directions. Annabeth was coming over for dinner, and he felt like he was walking on air.

Percy was hoping for a slow goodbye where he promised to text her, and then wished her goodnight. But as soon as they were through the gate, the downtown 1 train pulled in.

“Shit!” Annabeth yelled, taking off towards the stairs. “See you tomorrow!” she yelled, already out of sight.

 _See you tomorrow,_ Percy though, smiling, as he made his way down the stairs to the uptown side.

~*~*~*~

“So for your date tonight –“ his mom started.

“It’s not a date,” Percy protested. “It’s just Annabeth.”

“She’s coming all the way from downtown to meet you.”

“Well, yeah.”

“She’s staying for dinner.”

“Yeah.”

“You two are dancing together.”

“Mom!”

She held up her hands in surrender, before she asked him to pass him some spices.

“Seriously, though,” he said, “it’s not a date. If I had asked her out, our first date wouldn’t be in our apartment with you, Paul, and Stella around.” He stood at the counter, his back to her as he chopped the vegetables. “Besides, I don’t think she wants to be dating.”

“Well, I’ll still try not to embarrass you just in case,” she said.

“You know, it’d be great if you tried not to embarrass me at all ever,” he said.

She walked over and ruffled his hair. “I gave birth to you; I can embarrass you when and how I want. That’s the arrangement.”

“To be clear,” Percy said, “I did not ask to be born.” 

~*~*~*~

Annabeth arrived about half an hour before dinner was ready. Percy buzzed her into the building, and then opened the door to his apartment for her.

“Hi,” she said, looking a little frazzled from the cold. She handed him a bottle of wine in a paper bag. “I brought a bottle of wine,” she said quickly, “because I didn’t know what else to bring, but, I don’t know about you, I don’t drink this close to shows, so I’m sorry if this is totally useless.”

Percy smiled at her nervousness and let her inside. “It’s fine. My parents will enjoy it, or we can save it until after the run of the show.” That seemed to relax her a bit. She slipped off her jacket and hat, which Percy quickly took from her, hanging them on the hook near the door. She was wearing a simple cream-colored sweater and a pair of jeans with her long blonde hair down around her shoulders. It was a simple look, but Percy so rarely saw her in street clothes or with her hair down that he almost forgot why she was in his apartment at all.

“Let me introduce you,” he said, ushering her into the kitchen and living room.

After introductions, which were thankfully free of embarrassment for Percy, the two sat on the couch. Annabeth fiddled with her hands and started straight forward. Percy had seen her dance in front of a crowd of thousands, balanced on two toes, without a single sign of nerves or anxiety, but something about Percy’s small family had made her uneasy.

“Are you okay?” Percy asked.

Annabeth nodded a little too quickly. “I just haven’t met new people or had dinner at someone’s house in, like, a year. And other people’s parents tend not to like me.”

“Don’t worry, I think my mom will like you just fine.” Annabeth sighed and shook her head, not saying anything. “Hey,” Percy took her hands, steadying them, “there’s nothing to worry about,” he assured her. “My mom is probably going to ask you polite questions about where you trained before New York and how you like the company, and all of that. My sister will probably ask you ask the costumes and the hair and the shoes. And my stepdad will probably make a bad pun and pretend to know what any of us are talking about.”

Annabeth smiled and nodded as her shoulders relaxed. Percy pulled his hands away when he realized he was still holding hers, trying not to blush.

~*~*~*~

They shared small talk, talking about company drama and recalling old stories, until Sally called them into the kitchen for dinner.

“Thank you, again, for having me,” Annabeth said as they sat down.

“It’s my pleasure, dear,” Sally told her. “Please, enjoy,” she said, handing her a bowl of food to scoop from.

“So,” Sally started once they were all served, “Annabeth, where are you from?”

Annabeth cleared her throat. “Well, my whole family is from Boston, but I grew up in Virginia, until I moved to New York for the ballet school when I was fourteen. I’ve lived here ever since.”

“And they took you into the company very early, didn’t they?” Sally asked.

Annabeth nodded. “I was sixteen. It was grueling,” she said. “I’m glad that dancers are being taken in later that I was, because it was hard. I still don’t think I was prepared for it, and I have no idea how I got through it.”

“What’s the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you on stage?” Estelle asked. Sally frowned at her, but Annabeth laughed.

“I was dropped once.” Estelle’s eyes went wide, and Sally gasped. Percy laughed, remembering the story she was about to tell.

“When I was twenty,” Annabeth said, “I was Juliet in _Romeo and Juliet,_ and there is a scene at the end where Juliet has taken potion to make it look like she’s dead.” Annabeth explained to Estelle, who was looking at her with an extreme intensity. “And Romeo comes on stage, and he sees me laying on this tombstone, which was just this wooden slab on a platform three steps up. And Romeo has to pick up Juliet’s lifeless body and carry her down the stairs and do a pas de deux. But, of course, I’m dead, so I can’t help the guy. So, he’s just swinging me around like deadweight.” Percy and Paul laughed at this, but Sally kept on looking horrified. Percy wasn’t sure if his mom was still hung up on the fact that Annabeth had been dropped, or if she was uncomfortable with the choreography being described. Estelle, though, just looked fascinated with the story.

“One night, Charles Beckendorf, who’s one of the best partners in the business, is my Romeo, and climbs up the stairs, picks me up, and then, all the sudden, I am falling down the stairs.” Percy heard his mom whisper “oh my god,” as Annabeth continued. “And I have no idea what happened, because I’m dead, so my eyes are closed. Turns out, he had slipped at the top of the stairs, and we had both fallen down onto the stage. Thankfully, neither of us were hurt, but the orchestra was still going, so we had to keep dancing. But I’m still dead. So, he had to lift me, dead weight, off the stage and finish the dance.

“The worst part was that, at that point in the ballet, Romeo and Juliet don’t leave the stage until the show is over. So, for the next twenty minutes, we are both panicking thinking we’re going to get pulled from the ballet for the rest of the run or that we’re going to be fired.

“Curtain falls, ballet is over, we meet Chiron backstage who just nodded and said, ‘I liked it, leave it in.’” Percy laughed at Annabeth’s Chiron impression – a stiff nod, a frown, and a gruff voice offering compliments when you expected nothing but critique.

“Apparently,” Annabeth continued, “from the audience, it had looked planned, as if Romeo was so overcome with grief, he just couldn’t stay standing. Of course, one of the ballet mistresses heard about Chiron’s plan and told him it was too dangerous for me to be dropped down the stairs every night, so we never did end up doing it again.”

“Well,” Paul said, “hopefully Percy won’t drop you like that.”

“No,” Percy said, “this ballet is thankfully free of carrying her down stairs. Although,” he looked at Annabeth, “you are in a death-like sleep again.” 

Annabeth smiled. “As long as I never have to be a snowflake again, I’ll take all of the only-mostly-dead roles.”

~*~*~*~

Annabeth opened up after that, charming Sally and Estelle with her dance stories and compliments about Percy’s skills as a partner (which Percy didn’t mind either.) She tried to help Sally clear the table, but Sally refused to let her help, insisting that she and Percy relax in the living room. After a few minutes, she brought in a tray of blue cookies for them.

Annabeth’s eyes went wide when she saw them; she picked a big one off the top and held it in front of her face. “Blue?” she asked.

“It’s an inside joke between my mom and me,” Percy said, picking up a cookie of his own.

Annabeth eyes went wide and she smiled, “Oh! That’s why everything you own is blue!” She said, like she had solved some grand mystery. “Your bag, your foam roller, your water bottle.” Percy smiled and nodded, confirming her conclusions. “And see, I just thought you were super into that ‘blue for boys, pink for girls’ thing.”

Percy laughed, breaking off a piece of his cookie. “No, I think that’s kind of bogus.”

Before Annabeth could respond, Sally poked her head in. “We’re going to be in our room, but it was so nice to meet you Annabeth. Please, feel free to stay as long as you’d like. And take some of the cookies home with you!”

Annabeth waved them goodnight. “Goodnight and thank you again for having me. I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime, honey,” Sally said, disappearing around the corner.

“See,” Percy said, “I told you they’d like you.”

Annabeth smiled. “Yeah, must just be my family that doesn’t like me, then.”

She said that nonchalantly like it was a joke, but it caught Percy off guard. “You’re not close with your family?” He asked her.

She shrugged. “No, not really.”

“That must have been hard,” Percy said.

She nodded. “I mean, I should be grateful for them,” she added. “They’ve supported me my entire career and paid for everything, you know? But mostly I think they were glad I found ballet. It kept me out of the house most of the time.” Annabeth laughed sadly as she nibbled on her cookie. “It was funny. There was this one time, right when I was about to turn seventeen and find out if I got my company contract, and I got a text from my step-mom that just said: ‘Your dad got a new job in San Francisco. We’re moving in a week.” She forced a laugh again, but when she saw that Percy didn’t find that funny, she let her guard down. “They’d all known for months, but none of them thought to tell me.” She finished in a voice much sadder than the one she had started with.

Percy rested a hand on her knee, which she took willingly. “I’m so sorry, that’s awful. Can I ask why they didn’t –”

She cut him off. “My mom left me and my dad in the middle of the night when I was a few weeks old, and we never heard from her again. I guess things were fine with just me and my dad for the first few years, but he got remarried when I was three. They started their ‘real’ family, and I was just wrench in the machine.” She shrugged. “But anyway,” she said, forcing herself to perk up, “it all worked out. I mean, I got this amazing dance career and an absolutely awful taste in men,” she joked, “and you didn’t invite me here just to talk about my problems. Tell me about you. We’ve been dancing together for years, and I feel like I barely know you.”

“Can I give you a hug?” Percy asked her.

She was taken aback. “What?”

“Can I give you a hug? You just seem kind of sad.”

Annabeth dropped her plucky attitude and nodded, opening her arms to him. He held her tightly, rubbing her back gently to let her know that he was there.

When she pulled away, there were some tears on her cheeks that she quickly blotted off with a napkin. “Jesus, look at me, I’m so sorry.”

“You’re fine,” Percy assured her. “And, seriously, if you ever need to talk, I’m here. I would really like to be your friend.”

She smiled at him. “Thank you, that really means a lot to me.”

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments, before Annabeth said: “But, really, tell me about yourself. How did you get started in ballet?”

“Kind of like you did, I guess. I needed something to do after school to get me out of the house and away from my stepdad,” he said. “Not Paul,” he added, “the guy my mom was married to before him.” He ran his hand through his hair and relaxed back on the couch. “I didn’t start dancing until I was ten,” he told her.

Her eyes went wide. “Really?”

He nodded. “I started at the Y, really basic classes because I needed something to do.” He didn’t tell her it was because he’d gotten kicked off the rec basketball team for punching a kid who’d made fun of Tyson, Percy friend and teammate, for having down syndrome. Percy’s reasons for decking the kid didn’t matter to his coach, though, who’d just hung his head, exhausted constantly by Percy’s troublemaking. _“Just go home, Percy,”_ his coach had told him. “ _Just go home.”_ When he’d gotten kicked off the team, he had known he’d have to find something else to do after school as soon as he could. He couldn’t stand the idea of spending hours alone with Gabe before his mom got home from the candy shop.

“Why’d you pick dance?” She asked.

“I wanted to play basketball,” he said, “but the season had already started. The only thing I could still sign up for was ballet.” Percy smiled. “It was funny, the week I had my first class was the week before my mom got paid, so I didn’t have ballet shoes yet. I tried to do the barre in my socks, but the instructor saw, and she came back with these girls ballet slippers. They were extras they had. They were too big and for girls, but they were better than nothing. I ended up wearing them for four months. My mom had to sew the canvas where my big toe had popped through.” Annabeth smiled at the detail, but Percy figured she’d never had to wear second-hand shoes.

“Why’d you stick with it?” She asked.

Percy took a deep breath and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “It was a control thing, I think,” he said. “I …” he hesitated, but he decided to be honest with her, the way she had been with him. “I was a troubled kid. I have ADHD and dyslexia, so my grades were bad. I got into fights, my stepdad …” he decided to leave those details out. “Well, he’s not around anymore and that’s for the best.” Annabeth nodded, looking at him even as he kept his gaze forward.

“I understand that,” she mused as he continued.

“But when I got to ballet … well, it was this quiet room with piano music, and no one was talking to each other. We all just plie’d in peace, and it was just so nice,” he smiled, “and I felt in control there. I realized that if I put a lot into ballet, I’d get a lot out of it. So, I started to practice every night, and after six months, my teacher told my mom that I had to be in a better program if I wanted to be a better dancer, because she really believed that I could go the distance.”

He paused, smiling at the memory, but his eyes felt a little misty. He took a sip of water to avoid crying in front of her. “It was the first time a teacher had really believed in me,” he said. “She helped me find a school and scholarship money, and … that was all she wrote. I started dancing pretty much every day until I got into the academy at fifteen.” He smiled and looked back at her.

She was listening to him intently and had leaned closer to him. When he sat up straight, she had to readjust so that their bodies didn’t collide. He smiled when he saw that she was still listening to him. “You know, the year I started at the school was the year you got into the company?”

She didn’t answer his question. Instead, she placed her hands on his, the same way he had for her earlier. “You must have worked really hard.” She said.

Percy nodded. “So many people in the school and the company had done all of these summer intensives and had been in youth companies and all of that. And there I was, this ragamuffin kid who got his start as a pre-teen at the YMCA,”

Annabeth smiled uncomfortably. “I was in a youth company,”

Percy forced himself to laugh and assure her that he didn’t hate people who had been in youth companies or had been dancing since they were very young. He knew it wasn’t her fault that she had gotten lucky, he just always hated that sense of what-if: what if he had more money growing up? What if he had gotten started earlier? How much further in his career could he be if he had half the opportunities Annabeth had? 

“Besides, you haven’t had it easy either,” he said.

She nodded. “I actually spent the last few months back in Virginia at the youth company. I did some choreography, led some classes, and kept up with my own training. It was nice to get out of the city for a while.”

“I bet,” he said. He wanted to ask her what happened, but he figured she would have already told him, so he dodged it. “I’m lucky, my get-away is a lot closer than yours.”

“Oh yeah? Where do you escape to?”

“Montauk beach, out on Long Island.” He pointed vaguely towards the east.

“You know, I’ve lived in New York for twelve years, and I’ve never been to Long Island.”

Percy’s eyes went wide. “What do you do in the summer? Suffer here? Or do you jet off to Disney World or Hawaii?”

She bumped her shoulder into his. “Please, I don’t have that much money.” She said. “I go …” She paused, and the put her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. “Oh my god, I don’t even want to tell you. I feel like you’ll stop being my friend forever.”

Percy smiled when she called him her friend. “Nothing you could say could change that. Come on, just tell me.”

She took a deep breath. “I go to Jersey,” she admitted.

Percy groaned and leaned back against the couch. “Oh my god!”

“It’s nice! They have nice beaches, good pizza –“

“Get out of my apartment!” Percy said while laughing and pointing at the door. Annabeth grabbed his hand and pulled it out of its pointing pose.

“It’s nice, I promise!”

“Please!” Percy said. “Long Island might not be the Bahamas, but it’s better than Jersey.”

“Have you ever been to New Jersey?” She asked.

“No,” he admitted, “but that’s by design.”

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” she said.

“Alright, tell you what,” Percy said. “This summer, I’ll take you to Long Island and you can take me to Jersey,” he couldn’t believe what he was saying, “and we’ll decide which was better.”

Annabeth held out her hand. Percy took it and they shook on it. “Deal.” She said.

~*~*~*~

They stayed up talking and enjoying a few too many cookies but not worrying about it, for two more hours. When Annabeth caught a flash of the time: 10:15p.m. She gasped.

“I had no idea how late it was getting,” she said, standing up. “I should head home and let you get some rest.”

“Do you want me to come with you on the subway?” Percy offered. “It’s getting late and you’ve got a long train ride.”

Annabeth shook her head. “No, thank you though, that’s sweet. I’ll just call an Uber,” she said, taking out her phone.

Percy nodded, picking up the tray of cookies. “Sounds good. I’m sending you home with at least half of these, though, or else my mom will kill me.”

Annabeth smiled. “If I don’t fit into my costume, I’m telling Silena that it’s your fault.”

Percy placed a few cookies in a zip-lock bag and handed it to her. “They have no calories remember,” he said.

She zipped up her coat and forced her hat onto her head. Before she could say goodbye, Percy slipped on his jacket and shoes. “Let me walk you out,” he said.

~*~*~*~

They stood on the curb waiting for her car as snow started to fall. Percy looked up at the sky and smiled, watching the flurries fall in the light of the streetlamps.

“Thank you, again, Percy, for such a great night,” she said.

“Anytime, seriously. My door is always open.” He was suddenly very aware of how close they were standing and how beautiful he thought she was. There were times where he thought his crush on her was maybe just the result of admiration for her dancing. He thought that, maybe if he got to know her, he wouldn’t like her as much outside of the studio. Tonight had disproven that theory.

Her Uber pulled up. “Annabeth?” the driver asked. Annabeth double checked the license plate number before confirming. She turned back to Percy to say a final goodbye.

That would have been the perfect moment to kiss her, as she stood under the snow, looking up at him, the yellow light of the streetlamp bouncing off her blonde hair. Sure, they had kissed before, but rehearsal kisses were different. They didn’t count. This would be an “I like you” kiss, a “let me take you out to dinner” kiss, it could be a wonderful, earth-shattering, life changing kiss.

But that kiss would ruin everything. Instead, he tried to memorize the way her eyes looked, and the way snow stuck to her eyelashes, and the way she waved goodbye to him from the window of her Uber. 


	4. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An uninvited guest attends the dress rehearsal. Percy starts to get a sense of what happened between Luke and Annabeth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Please not that the tags for this story have been updated, and some of them do apply to this chapter.  
> (If you have checked the tags, and nothing is a particular trigger for you, the rest of the note may spoil this chapter) 
> 
> This chapter starts to feature some minimal verbal abuse, as well as nonconsensual sharing of nude photos. The verbal abuse is about halfway through when Luke shows up. That section is marked off with *****. The photos are the last section of the story when Percy is home. That section is marked off with ~~~~~ and goes until the end. 
> 
> The next chapter will flash back to exactly what happened with Luke and Annabeth's relationship and will be the darkest chapter in the story. I will leave appropriate triggers, as well as demarcate specifically problematic sections of that chapter when it is posted. 
> 
> After these two chapters, things will go back to fluff, as well as some hurt/comfort. 
> 
> The ballet moments mentioned in this chapter:  
> The Awakening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSvNjhEPh7I  
> The Wedding Pas De Deux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsjk4e2yz2E

Percy slipped into his tights and doublet before slicking his wild hair down with enough gel to make sure it held throughout the ballet. He jumped up and down a few times, shaking his hands, trying his best to get rid of some of his nerves while keeping his muscles warm.

Their dress rehearsal started in a few minutes, but he had plenty of time; he didn’t go on until act two. Still, he wanted to feel ready – to be in his costume, hair, and makeup before anything started. It was safer for him that way. Sometimes large chunks of time just disappeared from him, and if that happened during a show or a rehearsal, he could be caught, literally, with his tights down. Despite this being a recurring stress-nightmare every time he approached a show, it had never happened. Still, he liked to be ready.

He left his dressing room and began to wander backstage, telling passing dancers to break a leg. He didn’t realize how much he wanted to see Annabeth until he ran into her. She was fully costumed-up too – pink, rose-adorned tutu, shoes on, hair back, makeup insane up close but probably perfect from the seats. She was just doing some basic plies and tendus, using a stray folding chair as a barre.

She smiled when she saw Percy, stopping her warmup. “Well, look at you, Prince Charming,” she said, smiling at his costume. It was the first time either of them had seen each other in these. Percy knew what the Aurora costume looked like (the company had used the same design for decades), but it looked like it was suited for her, like she was the only one who had ever, would ever, or should ever wear it. The tutu and leotard were a light pink color, with roses embroidered on the tutu, which held its shape with layers of perfectly constructed tool that, even though it was a pancake tutu, gave the illusion of a beautiful classic ballgown. The top was the same color, with more little roses snaking their way up the straps. The costume didn’t have sleeves, but she did have little ruffles around her upper arms. And for the full princess effect, of course, she had a tiny, rhinestone crown that would glitter fantastically in the spotlight. She looked beautiful. 

“You look great,” he said.

She smiled. “You look pretty handsome yourself.”

“Well,” he said, crossing his harms and putting on an ironically cocky attitude, “who isn’t into a man in eyeliner and tights?”

Annabeth smirked. “I think it’s a great look that more men should embrace.”

 _Is she flirting with me?_ Percy’s heartbeat with an unexpected excitement.

He was going to say something back to her, when the stage manager announced there were only two minutes until they started. Annabeth looked at him, her gray eyes wide with anticipation.

“You’re gonna kill it,” Percy said.

“Are you going to watch act one?”

He nodded. “At least your part. I might skip the fairies.”

She took a deep breath, before going up on pointe. Percy looked at her, confused by what she was going. They were the same height when she was on pointe (it was one of the reasons they made good a duo). She looked him in the eyes, and for a moment, Percy thought she was going to kiss him, but she just leaned in and hugged him, resting her chin over his shoulder so she didn’t mess up her makeup before the show had even started. He hugged her back, wrapping his arms around her to keep her close to him and to help her keep her balance.

She pulled away after a few moments, smiling at him. “I’ll see you at intermission. My chair and I are going to try and stay warm in the wing.”

Percy nodded. “Break a leg.” He said as she walked off towards the stage.

*****

As the overture started, Percy headed back to his dressing room for his pre-show ritual of freaking out. His entire body buzzed with excitement about the idea of finally having the show up on the stage, but with terror at the possibility that he could fuck everything up.

He headed past the stage door on his way to his dressing room but paused when he saw two familiar faces arguing in the doorway.

“Please, I just want to see her.”

Percy’s breath caught when he saw Luke, standing half inside and half outside of the theater, well-dressed and clean cut as always, fighting with Beckendorf, who, despite being on crutches, was holding his own against the other man.

“I don’t think she wants to see you,” Beckendorf told him. “Leave her alone.” He reached for the door, and tried to close it, but Luke put his hands out, stopping his efforts.

Luke’s face turned dark, no longer politely pleading to see his ex-fiancé. “Oh please. You think I can’t get past a cripple?” 

Percy knew Beckendorf – he was a calm, level-headed man, but he could get angry and protective of people he cared about. The last thing Percy wanted was for the two of them to start really fighting backstage.

He walked up to the two of them, putting himself between them, forcing Luke further out of the theater. “What’s going on?”

“This asshole,” Beckendorf said, point at Luke with one of his crutches, “was trying to sneak in and cause trouble.”

“I’m not causing any trouble. I just want to see Annabeth,” Luke protested. He looked at Percy, trying to seem innocent, but Percy trusted Beckendorf’s opinion on Luke. Before Percy could say anything, Beckendorf shot back.

“You think that won’t cause any trouble?” Beckendorf yelled.

“She’s got a job to do,” Percy added, looking at Luke. “She doesn’t need you getting in the way.”

Luke laughed at him. “Heard you’re the prince. You think that means something? You think that means you’re a good dancer?”

“I am good!” Percy said, forcing a confident tone. He could feel his face flushing with embarrassment and anger rising in his chest. 

“Come on,” Luke said, smirking at him in a way that made Percy’s stomach churn with anger, “I’ve been in class with you. If you’re the principal here, it’s only because Annabeth wanted a partner who she knew wouldn’t upstage her.” _He looks like my Gabe_ , Percy though. Luke might have been thin, washed, and handsome, but his tone, the look on his face, like nothing would make him happier that to see that he hurt you, was a look Percy has become well acquainted with in the decade he lived with Gabe. Percy remembered some of the passing comments Annabeth had made about him and wondered if he had ever turned this tone on her, or worse. 

Percy wanted to hit him, to ruin his perfect smug stupid face, but he held back. He thought about telling Luke that no dancer, not him, not Beckendorf, and certainly not Luke, could ever upstage Annabeth; that she was fantastic all on her own and better off without him. But the last thing he needed was for Luke to catch wind of his affection for her.

“I saw you two dance Diamonds together last year,” Luke continued. “You think I didn’t notice how much you wanted to fuck my fiancé?” He asked. Percy snarled and got ready to hit him, but Beckendorf held him back.

“She’s not your fiancé anymore, and you have no business being here,” Beckendorf told him.

Luke frowned. Percy thought he might just force his way into the building. Instead he just took a step back. “Fine. Who’d want to watch this shitty production anyway? With such a weak partner for a prince, I’m sure it’s going to be just once disaster after another.” He turned around and headed away from the theater. Percy wanted to chase him out and get him back for what he had said. But he couldn’t do anything that would cost him his job or get him arrested, so he held back, staying the theater, fuming with rage.

“None of what he said was true,” Beckendorf said, resting a hand of Percy’s shoulder. “You’re a great dancer, and you earned your role.”

Percy brushed his hand off his shoulder. “I only got it because you’re injured.”

Beckendorf shrugged. “You still beat out all the principals and other soloists.” He said. “And you know Annabeth has no say over the casting. Doesn’t matter who she’d want to dance it with. Chiron picked you.”

Percy nodded, unconvinced. He headed to the stage, two voices ringing back and forth in his head – _Do your job,_ Annabeth’s voice told him. _Annabeth wanted a partner, she knew wouldn’t upstage her,_ Luke said to him.

He got to the wings of the stage as the prologue was completing. He saw Annabeth, standing in position, ready for her entrance. He didn’t go up to her. He couldn’t. He knew she’d know something was wrong right away.

He hung back in the shadows, trying to calm down, as he watched act one. She looked happy and perfect as she flew across the stage.

 _You think I didn’t notice how much you wanted to fuck my fiancé?_ Percy shook his head, trying to get rid of Luke’s voice. _What an asshole,_ Percy thought.

Percy watched as Aurora took the spindle from Carabosse, pricked her finger, and fell into her magical deep sleep. Jason, one of her four princes, caught her, and lowered her to the ground as she ‘fell.’ Percy laughed as he watched Annabeth gracefully and subtly lay a limp hand on her tutu to hold it down as she was lowered onto her back.

 _With such a weak partner for a prince, I’m sure it’s going to be just once disaster after another._ Luke’s voice reminded him. Percy’s heart rate picked up as Chiron yelled “Curtain!” Signaling the end of act one. He went on soon; they just had intermission. _Do you job,_ he told himself. _That’s all you have to do._

“You are going to be great,” Beckendorf said, coming up behind him. “You two are great partners.”

Annabeth made her way off thestage and back towards him and Beckendorf, smiling wide.

He couldn’t tell her about Luke. At least, not right now. She didn’t need any distractions.

“Annabeth,” Beckendorf said, “perfect as always.”

She smiled and rolled her eyes as she started to rattle off all the steps, she had to quickly adjust to keep from losing her balance and the turns she overshot or landed out of time with the music. Percy barely listened though. _You think I didn’t notice how much you wanted to fuck my fiancé?_ Luke right about that, Percy admitted to himself. But he didn’t want it to end there, or even start there. He watched her head back to her dressing room to get into her act two costume and change her shoes, wondering how an asshole like Luke had ever had the privilege of dating her.

~*~*~

The vision sequence went well; there were no major catastrophes, which was all they could really hope for. Percy rode out of the scene on the Lilac Fairy’s gondola, as the scene changed to Aurora’s room. Annabeth, back in her act one costume, was brought out on her bed, surrounded by her sleeping court. Scrims covered in branches and cobwebs fell, making the stage dark. Percy entered again, staring in awe at Annabeth, before going to Piper. _What should I do, she’s asleep?_ He mimed to her. _Kiss her._ Piper mimed back. Percy blew a kiss to audience, a way of saying: _Of course! I’ll kiss her!_ Before making his way to her bed.

There was no way to fake a kiss on stage, but the kisses were always gentle pecks. And the almost-nearly-dead Aurora wasn’t supposed to kiss back. But when Percy leaned over and kissed her, he could have sworn she began to kiss back, just for a second it felt like her lips moved to meet his. It was so fleeting, he worried he might have imagined it.

_You think I didn’t notice how much you wanted to fuck my fiancé?_

Maybe he had imagined it. Or maybe it was an acting choice; it was a sign that Aurora had come back to life, and that she remembered him.

Percy didn’t have time to dwell on this kiss, though. The scrims began to lift, the lights came back to the stage, and Annabeth rose from the bed. The Lilac Fairy re-introduced them, and act two ended.

~*~*~

Percy stood backstage, sharing one last quiet moment with Annabeth, now changed into her white wedding tutu, before entering for the wedding scene. He had a few minutes to make it to the other side of the stage where he would enter, but he couldn’t dally for too long.

“Back where we started,” she said, smiling. He couldn’t help it, he smiled back. Percy looked at her. She had changed into her final tutu – a stunning white beaded costume. His costume was similar – all white from head to toe, but less sparkle. They were about to do the wedding pas de deux, the first dance they had done together for this ballet. But in their white costumes, they almost looked like diamonds. _Like diamonds,_ Percy realized. At the dress rehearsal for _Jewels,_ Annabeth had run off the stage half-way through their pas de deux, and he never found out why. _Luke,_ he thought. They had both left the company shortly after that. Percy wasn’t a religious man, but, as he looked at Annabeth, who, even in the darkness of the wings was positively radiant, he sent up a prayer to any god that might listen, begging them to keep her on stage the whole time.

He decided not to remind her that last time they had a dress rehearsal she ran out on him. He figured she remembered well enough on her own.

“How are your legs?” He asked.

She sighed. “Oh, about ready to fall off, but I think I can get through one last dance.”

Percy took her hand and squeezed it. “You’ll be great,” he said.

She squeezed back. “So will you.” It sounded like she really meant it, like she believed in him. Percy tried his best to trust her, but his confidence wavered as he walked off to his position.

He took a deep breath. It didn’t matter what he felt right now, he thought as they entered the stage, he had to be confident in this moment, or else Annabeth would literally fall on her face.

Partnering with a woman in a tutu was a challenge, because it was hard to see her legs. Percy just had to try and sense where her balance was as he pressed her into the air before setting her back down on her toes. He had gotten a good sense of her balance back when they had done Diamonds, and he had become even more familiar in the last few weeks. All thoughts of Luke left his head as the music began. All the mattered was that he and Annabeth danced together. Not as Percy and Annabeth, but as Aurora and the Prince. Artistry, technique, and passion mattered right now, not some asshole ex-fiancé.

By the time they got to the first fish dives, Percy’s confidence had returned. They had spent time in rehearsal practicing these until Percy could do them one handed. Chiron insisted he do them one-handed, because Beckendorf always had. Percy didn’t think that was fair; Beckendorf was the best in the business. Percy was just in the business. But after weeks of rehearsal, they felt natural. He trusted Annabeth and she trusted him.

Annabeth would pirouette with Percy’s hand on her side. As she finished her last turn, he held onto her tight, lifting her up as she sent her face down forward and her legs up and back. They paused like that for a moment, before he lifted her back up for the second and third dive. They had to trust each other completely in these dives – if she hesitated, she wouldn’t get down fast enough. If he hesitated, she could lose her balance and get hurt. And City Ballet’s tempos were faster than classical companies, even when they used classical choreography; Annabeth had to spin and drop fast, and Percy had to be ready for her.

But the two worked in perfect harmony, hitting every dive on the music. When Percy lifted her out of the last dive, they had a moment where they stared at each other, communicating to the audience that they were completely in love. Annabeth smiled wide at him, her face full of joy to communicate not just that Aurora loved her prince, but that she knew they were doing well. Or maybe, it was just joy at the fact that the ballet was almost over -- relief at knowing she’d be able to rest soon. It didn’t matter. She was happy and not flat on her face on the stage. That was all Percy wanted.

They finished the dance with the final fish dive. This time, Percy had to lift his hand off her waist, as she held herself up by wrapping one leg around his torso and squeezing every muscle in her leg and core as hard as she could. It was amazing move to see from the audience, and Percy knew they had nailed it. He lifted her up, back onto her feet, as they went into their solos and the coda.

~*~*~

When the ballet ended, Percy had a moment backstage to catch his breath and dab some sweat off his forehead before running back out for the bows. After bowing to an audience of Chiron, a few company members, and a few ballet masters, he stepped to the side of the stage and watched as Annabeth entered for her final bow.

When he saw her, he felt his chest tighten with anxiety. The ballet had taken his mind off of Luke for long enough, but there wasn’t any avoiding it anymore. He had to tell her that he had come by to see her.

The memory of the conversation brought back doubts about his own abilities; sure, the rehearsal wasn’t perfect, and performances weren’t really ever perfect either, but he felt like he had done a good job. Well, except for the one set of turns during act two, and the quick choreography adjustment during his solo. Not to mention his near stumble during act three. He started quickly running through ever minor mistake he had made, sure that Chiron would rip into him during notes. He looked at Annabeth again. She had been nearly perfect – as perfect as a dancer could be. _Of course, Luke was right_ , he though.

Percy felt a familiar rage bubbling inside him; it was the same feeling he use to feel around his stepfather or class bullies, like he wanted to pick a fight, to yell at someone, to get even, to prove himself. He took a deep breath, trying to calm those feelings, but his efforts barely succeeded.

“And curtain!” Chiron yelled from the audience, in place of taking the effort to actually lower the curtain. “Good job everyone. Principal and solo roles be back on stage in half an hour for notes. Corps, expect your notes in an email later.”

Everyone nodded at the instructions and headed off the stage.

Percy headed off, but he felt someone grab his hand. “Percy, wait up,” he heard Annabeth say.

He turned around to face her, and her smile fell. “Are you okay?” She asked.

“Can I talk to you?”

She nodded and led him to her dressing room. Once they were inside, she closed the door, sitting in her vanity stool to take off her pointe shoes.

“What’s up?” She asked.

Percy took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair, which took some effort considering how slicked back it was for the performance.

“Luke was here earlier,” Percy said.

Annabeth sat up straight, leaving one shoe still on. “Oh.”

Her face was expressionless, like she was waiting for Percy to continue before she let her guard down.

“Beckendorf stopped him at the stage door. He – Luke – wanted to see you,” Percy continued. “Beck didn’t let him in.”

Annabeth nodded, bending down to take her other shoe off as she asked: “Did you talk to him?”

“A little, yeah,” Percy said. Annabeth looked up, her dead pointe shoes in her hand. She looked right through him; her gray eyes were emphasized by the exaggerated stage make up. Her mouth was set in a straight line, like she knew he wanted to say more, and she wouldn’t say anything herself until he did.

“I, uh, just figured I’d let you know that he came by. It was before the rehearsal, so I figured it would be distracting to tell you then.”

Annabeth nodded slowly. “You were right to tell me.” Percy let out a breath. “Did he say why he …?” She trailed off.

“Just said he wanted to see you,” Percy told her. “I joined later in the conversation. Beckendorf might know more.”

She nodded again. “I’ll talk to him about it.” She paused. “Thanks for not letting him in. And for waiting to tell me.”

Percy nodded. The room felt tense, like he couldn’t say anything else, but he couldn’t leave. Annabeth stayed sitting, and Percy stayed standing on the other side of the room.

Finally, Annabeth spoke. “Did he, um … did he say anything else about me?” Her voice was tense with anxiety. Percy remembered the way Luke spoke to him as he looked at Annabeth, her face expressionless and starting forward at the wall of her dressing room. Percy didn’t know if she was trying to control rage or fear.

 _You think I didn’t notice how much you wanted to fuck my fiancé?_ “No,” Percy said. “Just talked some shit about the show.”

She looked at him, curious. “What did he say?”

Percy shrugged. “Just some shit about how the production was going to be bad because I’m a weak dancer.”

Annabeth stood up, indignant. “Don’t listen to him,” she said, walking over to him. She shook her head and stared at his chest as she spoke to him, like she couldn’t look him in the eye if she tried. “This is what he does, he wants you to feel small, and weak, and like you’re nothing. Just don’t …” paused for a second, before finally meeting his gaze. “Don’t listen to him. You’re a fantastic dancer, Percy.”

Percy nodded. One side of his brain told him to believe her, to thank her, to kiss her; the other side of his brain told him she was just being nice and that she was in costume changes for all of his solos.

She was staring at his chest again, not looking up at him. _He wants you to feel small, and weak, and like you’re nothing._ Percy had a feeling she hadn’t just been talking about him. He wanted to find Luke again, and hurt him really bad, make him bleed, make him _apologize_ , but he took a few deep breaths, trying to rid himself of his anger. It wouldn’t help Annabeth. “Are you okay?” Percy asked.

She looked up at him. “I don’t know,” she admitted after a moment.

He wanted to hug her, but she had her makeup on still, and his act three costume was pure white. He wanted to kiss her but kissing a woman after talking about her ex-fiancé seemed like the wrong time.

But she was still looking at him. Her confusion and sadness blended with the confidence and pride he loved about her. She licked her lips just a bit, and there was suddenly a new tension in the room. Kissing her first would be a bad decision, he decided, but if she kissed first …

He felt the edge of her tutu brush against his legs, and he held his breath. He knew that if he took a single step closer to her, he would --

“Annabeth,” Percy heard Piper say, knocking at the door of the dressing room. “Chiron’s starting notes in a few minutes.”

Annabeth took a step away from him. “I’ll be right there,” she yelled back. “I have to get changed,” she said to Percy, looking down at her white tutu.

Percy nodded. “I’ll see you downstairs.”

He stepped out of her dressing room, and saw Piper waiting for Annabeth in the hall. She was scrolling on her phone, so Percy tried to sneak past her, but the sound of the dressing room door closing caught her attention.

She gave Percy a sly smile when she saw him, and Percy felt his ears get red. “Oh, okay.” Piper said.

“Piper, please don’t – nothing happened –” he stammered.

She put up her hands. “I won’t tell anyone. Scouts honor,” she promised. “But time these things a little better. People will notice if you’re both late.”

Percy nodded, figuring that was the best he was going to get.

~*~*~

Percy stole a few glances at Annabeth during notes and corrections. He never caught her looking back, but he figured she was too proud to look his way.

He offered to walk her to the subway when they were done, but she shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m going to call an Uber. My legs are so tired I don’t think I could make it up the stairs.”

Percy laughed. “That’s fair.”

She stopped when they got to the curb. She turned towards him, placing a gentle hand on his arm. “Seriously, Percy, don’t dwell on what Luke said,” she was looking at him in the eyes this time. “You’re really fantastic.”

He smiled. “So are you,” he said. “When you’re on stage, no one can take their eyes off of you.”

She shrugged and brushed him off. “That’s just because I’ve got the crown and big tutu.”

“No, it’s not,” he told her.

She smiled and adjusted her dance bag. She looked like she was about to say something else, but her Uber pulled up. “Well, enjoy your few days off,” she said. “I’ll see you at the show.” She smiled and waved goodbye as she got in the car.

“Get home safe,” he said to her.

He didn’t wait for the car to leave this time; instead, once the car door closed, he turned and headed towards the subway, his legs aching with each step.

~~~~~

His infinitely kind mother had a bucket of ice ready for him when he got home. He sat on his bed, ice packs on his quads and his feet in the buckets, his back flat against the mattress. He took a few relaxing breaths, running through the high parts of the rehearsals – the solos he had done well, the compliments Annabeth and Chiron had given him. He also took stock of some of his corrections, noting some things he might work on in the couple of days before the show. He tried to keep Luke’s voice out of his head as much as he could as he ran through the notes, trying to focus on Annabeth. _You’re really fantastic,_ she had said to him.

He checked Instagram and Twitter, liking a few photos company members had posted of themselves in their costumes.

Annabeth had posted one. It was her, standing on pointe in her dressing room mirror in her pink act one costume. “All ready for my 16th birthday! Can’t wait to see who shows up!” The caption read. Percy smirked and liked the photo. He tried to think of something clever to comment, but they all sounded corny. Finally, he typed out “You’re my dream girl!” He laughed at his own joke but deleted the comment before posting. There was a better moment he could use that line, he realized, saving it in his memory for later.

When he ran out of social media to scroll through, he opened his email, hoping there wasn’t anything that needed his immediate attention.

He had a new email from an address he didn’t recognize. There wasn’t a subject or a body. Percy thought about deleting it right away, figuring it was spam or a virus, but the attachments caught his focus.

 _Annabeth 18_ the first one of them read. There were at least six other attachments, all with her name on them.

Without thinking much about it, he clicked on this first attachment.

He sat up straight when the photo loaded: it was Annabeth for sure, but she was much younger. Percy thought he might throw up when he realized that 18 didn’t number the photo, it was her age in the photo. He didn’t look at it long, but he saw it long enough to know she was topless in it, posed on a bed as someone took the picture of her.

Percy’s hands shook as he deleted the email and emptied his trash. He opened his messages and scrolled to Annabeth’s name, but closed the messaging app, opening the phone instead.

He waited for her to pick up, worried that she might already be asleep, but she answered after a few rings.

“I know you’re a gentleman, but you don’t need to call me to make sure I got home okay,” she teased.

“Sorry, I didn’t … I mean, that’s not why …” he couldn’t put his words in order. He hadn’t thought about what he would say to her.

“Is everything okay?” She asked.

“Did you just send me an email?” He asked her.

“No,” she said. “Why?” She suddenly sounded nervous, the playful tone gone from her voice, like she knew what he was going to say before he said it.

“Because I think someone just sent me something you wouldn’t want me to see.” 


	5. Diamonds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened between Annabeth and Luke? (POV: Free indirect discourse & Percy 3rd person limited.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like the chapter itself, this note comes to you in two parts: 
> 
> Part 1: Content warnings. This is the angst chapter. It gets into what happened between Luke and Annabeth and their breakup. There is talk of a relationship between someone who is underage and an adult. There are some scenes of verbal manipulation bordering on abuse. the particularly bad scene is the breakup scene. This scene is demarcated by ***** at the start and ~~~~~ at the end. If you want to skip this section, just control F for ~~~~~ when you get to the stars. Be aware, though, that some of this content is sprinkled throughout the chapter. 
> 
> Part 2: There is a tendency when it comes to fiction, but esp. fan works, to conflate the events of the story with the authors moral or political stance. Annabeth talks in this chapter about a decision that she has made, and, likely, not a lot of people will agree with it. Please do not conflate this exploration of a fictional character in a fictional situation with what you think my moral or political stance on the issue is. This is a story, not my advice to survivors. On that note as well, please know that you are not entitled to my past, trauma, or research. Please do not come a-knocking demanding that I explain what may or may not have happened to me in the past or what research I may or may not have done to write this chapter. If you don't like the chapter, you are free to say so and/or to stop reading the story, but you are not entitled to my past. If you demand that information of me, I simply will not engage with your comment. 
> 
> Anyway, links to the dances mentioned in this chapter: 
> 
> Jewels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Z2-0GVvIE&t=4374s (skip to 59:31 for the pas de deux)  
> Kitri act one variation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOvXo841L1o  
> Sugar Plum Fairy solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pKwCEfGRDU  
> Sugar Plum pas de deux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy6dlGpC3Ns (this is not the NYCB choreography, but you get the point)  
> El Tango De Roxanne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn0xXo1gwGY

**Part One: El Tango De Roxanne**

**“First there is desire. Then passion. Then suspicion. Jealousy, anger, betrayal. When love is for the highest bidder, there can be no trust. When there is no trust, there is no love. Jealousy, yes jealousy, will drive you mad!”**

**“You’re free to leave me, just don’t deceive me, and believe me when I say ‘I love you.’”**

_Ten Months Ago:_

Beckendorf didn’t need to be in the “Diamonds” rehearsal, but he didn’t have anything else scheduled, and he wanted to see their progress. It was the first time in a long time that he hadn’t been slotted to dance with Annabeth, but it seemed like the right call. Beckendorf had always felt more suited to “Emeralds” than to “Diamonds.” Annabeth, though, fit into the elegance and opulence of Imperial Russia flawlessly.

He smiled as he watched Percy turn her around, perfectly on time with the music. Beckendorf had only spent eleven months in soloist purgatory (although it had taken him four years to reach that rank); he was sure that after three years in the corps and four years as a soloist, Percy was working as hard as he could to prove himself a principal. He sure did look like one as he and Annabeth continued their dance.

Beckendorf didn’t remember his own short stint as a soloist very fondly. Almost overnight, he had gone from dancing six ballets a night to one solo in one ballet following his promotion. Even though he had more solo time, his time on stage decreased, and he was never first or even tenth in line for principal roles the way he was now. For eleven months, he was desperate to get on stage and to get promoted. He didn’t know how Percy had managed living in that limbo for three years.

If anyone had earned their promotion by now, it was Percy.

Beckendorf watched the ballet master’s eyes track Percy’s technique, face, and movement, paying little attention to Annabeth. He smiled; they were testing him, and Percy was acing the exam.

~*~*~

Beckendorf ran into Luke in the showers. “Hey, saw Annabeth dance earlier. She looked good.”

Luke smirked as he got changed, heading into his own rehearsal. “Yeah, she’s gorgeous. Shame she has to dance with Jackson.”

Beckendorf furrowed his brow. “Percy’s a great dancer.”

He scoffed. “You sound like Annabeth. I swear, he’s all she talks about.” Luke went back to pulling warmups out his bag to cover his tights.

“I’m sure you don’t have to be jealous of Percy,” Beckendorf said. He talked to Annabeth pretty often, and he didn’t think she spent too much time gushing about Percy by any measure. As far as he could tell, Annabeth loved Luke more than anyone.

“I know,” Luke said, the smile back on his face. “She pretty much begged me to marry her.”

Beckendorf paused. He didn’t sound overly enthusiastic about getting married. He didn’t want to pry, but he felt like he had to ask.

“Do you not want to –”

Luke cut him off before he could continue. “Check these out,” he said, holding up his phone. “Bet Jackson wishes he could see these.”

Beckendorf looked away as quickly as he had looked at the phone. “What the hell, man?!” He yelled. Luke had shown him a wall of photos of Annabeth; the images had been thumbnail size, but it didn’t take long to notice that she was nearly or completely naked in all of them. “She’s your fiancé!”

“Aren’t I lucky?” He said casually.

Beckendorf tried to wrap his head around what had just happened.

He and Luke had been in the company together for years, but they had never been close. Beckendorf didn’t even show Luke photos of his and Silena’s honeymoon. He couldn’t figure out why Luke thought what he had just done was appropriate.

“You shouldn’t show people those,” he said finally.

“Please. She wouldn’t care.” Luke said, putting his phone away.

He felt himself getting angrier with each response Luke gave. Beckendorf had great respect for Annabeth and counted her a friend. He couldn’t understand why Luke would expose intimate pictures of her, especially to him.

“Have you asked?” Beckendorf asked, trying to keep his voice below a yell.

Luke didn’t answer his question. Instead he told Beckendorf: “Relax,” with a suave calmness, as if he hadn’t just shown Beckendorf dozens of naked photos of Annabeth.

Luke’s calmness pushed Beckendorf’s anger over the top. Beckendorf slammed Luke up against the row of lockers, making some of the doors shake.

Luke put up his hands. “What the hell, man?”

“Do you have any idea how fucked up this is?” Beckendorf asked, still holding him against the wall.

“Whoa, guys, what’s going on?” Beckendorf heard Jason say, coming around the corner to break up the fight. Beckendorf stepped away. He couldn’t hit Luke. If he did, he could lose his job or be arrested. Beckendorf grabbed his bag and left without a word to either of them.

~*~*~

“What should we do about this?” He asked Silena as they left the studio.

She shook her head. She wished she had been more surprised by what Charlie had told her, but she knew Luke better than a lot of people. Dancers rarely thought about who in the costume shop was listening to them.

He had seemed nice at first – charming, sweet, all those things. But Annabeth’s career had begun to take off; she was earning leads, first-cast roles, and getting promoted through the ranks quickly. His had begun to plateau. He was already a principal (a well-respected one, at that), and he was six years older than her. At thirty-three, his career was entering its sunset phase, and hers was on the rise. 

She had heard him trying to undercut her accomplishments to other dancers, attempting to take credit for roles and promotions she earned, but she had never expected him to do something _this_ low. 

“We have to tell her,” Silena said. “We can’t let him keep doing this without her knowing.”

Charlie nodded. He had expected that answer. Still, it didn’t mean telling Annabeth was going to be any easier.

~*~*~

Annabeth wasn’t stupid. No matter how cheerful Silena had tried to sound on the phone (“Can Charlie and I drop by for a few minutes?” she had asked) that something was obviously wrong. She and Beckendorf were close, of course. They had done most of their partnering together for the last three years. But they didn’t hang out outside of rehearsal that often, and they didn’t just ‘drop by.’

What they were coming to talk to her about, though, was a mystery. She catastrophized of course – worse case scenarios all over the place – and she tried to rationalize – your friends just want to hang out.

When she opened her apartment door for them and saw their grim faces, though, she went back to catastrophizing.

“Can we come in?” Silena asked.

Annabeth stepped aside and let them in. “Make yourself at home.” She told them. She had started boiling some water when they were on their way and went over to the small kitchen area to pour the tea. “Can I get you anything? I made us some tea.” She said.

They both declined but accepted the tea silently.

The two of them sat on Annabeth’s couch, while she sat in the big chair at the foot of the coffee table.

“So, what’s up?” She asked, trying to hide how terrified she was of the answer.

The two looked at each other, as if they hadn’t rehearsed this part. Annabeth looked in between, them waiting for an answer.

Finally, Beckendorf took a deep breath, looked her in the eye and said: “Luke tried to show me nude photos of you today.”

Annabeth shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut as she let out a small laugh of disbelief. Beckendorf’s words bounced around her head but her mind refused to process them. “I’m sorry,” she said, “what did you just say?”

Silena nodded. “Luke tried to show him a bunch of naked pictures of you that he had on his phone.”

Annabeth shook her head again, her mouth open, trying to find words or a deep breath, but both escaped her. Time seemed to halt as what Beckendorf had just told her sank in. She felt her mind and emotions go numb to the news, her anxiety subsiding suddenly and inexplicably. 

“Why?” She finally asked. Her brain seemed to turn back on suddenly, finally reacting in earnest to what she had been told.

 _Why would he do that? Why would he do that to me? Why would he show that to you? Why did you tell me about it?_ She wanted to yell. She felt a fierce anger deep in her gut, like she could run the eighty blocks to the studio and make a scene in front of his rehearsal.

“I, uh …” Beckendorf paused for a moment, unsure of how to answer, “it seems like he was jealous of you and Percy.”

Annabeth leaned her head back. She felt like she could scream as the rage bubbled up, finally finding words to attach itself to. “He always does this!” She said, standing up and pacing around her living room. “I mean, seriously, if I say I like partnering with someone who isn’t him, and we _never_ partner together because he’s too tall and he _knows_ that, he takes it as some personal attack or some sign that I’m cheating. And I’ve never cheated on him!” She folded her arms on the back of the chair, resting her head in them. “Fuck! I can’t even compliment a coworker?” She yelled towards the floor. “And now …” she paused and looked up. “Why would he show them to you?” She asked.

Beckendorf shrugged. “I told him how good you are Percy looked at your rehearsal, he said some jealous things about Percy, then showed them to me, saying that he bet Percy wishes he could see them. I don’t know if he wanted to prove something to me or tell Percy about them or what.”

Annabeth sat back down in the chair, sinking low into the cushions. Her anger subsided quickly, replaced with a deep and overwhelming sadness that seemed to rip through her chest as she began to sob.

They had gotten into a fight a few nights before over Percy. She had mentioned over dinner that she though he would be promoted to a principal by the end of the summer, and Luke had gone quiet, ignoring her for the rest of the meal. She knew what he was waiting for: an apology for upsetting him.

She hated doing that. When she was younger, the apologies came easier. She found herself apologizing for crying when he yelled at her.

“I made me cry,” she had once told him, “I knew that doing that would upset you.” She had gone to Reyna’s apartment for an all-soloists party without Luke, who, as a principal, hadn’t been invited. He had asked her not to go at all, claiming he didn’t trust other guys to behave around her. She assured him that she could handle herself. A few drinks later, it was just her, Reyna, Piper, and a few others left, all getting ready to just crash on couches, air mattresses, or beds. When she called him to tell him, he yelled at her until she was crying in Reyna’s bathroom. If Reyna had known why she was crying, Annabeth was sure she would have advised breaking up with him on the spot, but, instead, Annabeth faked a panic attack and used that as an escape.

Because she loved him. So much of the time she loved him, and their relationship was fun, and passionate, and loving. Eighty percent of the time, he was the perfect guy.

And twenty percent of the time, he sat quietly through dinner, waiting for an apology for something so minor. When she was about twenty, she learned that it was easier to just offer the apology and move on.

“Sorry.” She said to him finally.

“I don’t know why you do that.” He said. “You know it upsets me.” Luke said, not looking at her.

“He’s just my dance partner.” She protested.

“Well, you sure do think a lot of him.”

“I think that he’s talented, yes.”

He looked up at her. The hanging light fixture over their kitchen table reflected in his eyes, making them almost look gold instead of blue. Annabeth sat up straighter, ready for a fight if there was going to be one.

Instead, he stood up, plate in one hand, and dropped the dish in the sink, before heading towards the door. “I’m going out.” He told her.

When the door slammed behind her, she let out a deep breath, sinking into her seat, trying desperately not to cry. Not for him, not again. After a moment, she stood up and went to the sink to clean up. Luke’s plate was broken in the sink, cracked into three larger ceramic pieces, with little shards decorating the rest of the basin. Annabeth took a deep breath again, and place her own plate over the broken one, resolving to clean it up later.

She hadn’t expected _this_ from Luke though. To show someone something so private and without much reason. For what? To make Percy jealous? Beckendorf jealous?

She knew the answer had nothing to do with either of them. There were truths about her relationship with Luke that were crystal clear if she thought about them for long enough, but they were terrifying to deal with.

She loved him, and they were great together so much of the time. He had promised her that they would be together and be a family. She hadn’t wanted to get married so young, but they had been together for years. When he proposed he had promised her all of that: family, security, permanence. Everything.

It was so easy to believe that promise was unconditional. But she had seen the patterns for years. He didn’t trust her, he took credit for most milestones in her career, and he certainly didn’t like moments when she soared above him. He had been on edge since she became a principal, constantly worried that she would outshine him. “I’m afraid you’ll get too good,” he had said jokingly soon after he had proposed, “and then you’ll leave me.”

It was an irrational fear – he was a great dancer, and so often male choreography existed to make the female dancer look stunning as he blends into the background.

He was never good at blending, though. He had to be the center of his own career and hers. Hell, most people in the company already resented her because they thought she had slept her way to the top, and she knew those rumors started with him. And now …

And now.

She looked up when she felt Silena’s hand on her shoulder. She offered her a tissue.

“Are you going to be okay?” Silena asked.

Annabeth shook her head, not quite sure how to respond.

“I just didn’t think he hated me this much.” She said after a moment.

“Oh honey,” Silena said, pulling her into a hug as she kept crying. Silena didn’t try to convince her that he didn’t hate her, or that he had just made a mistake. She just held her and let her cry.

After a moment, Annabeth sat back up, and found herself talking in circles about her relationship with Luke; Silena and Beckendorf’s faces became more upset and angrier as the stories piled up.

Finally, Annabeth paused to drink her tea. Silena sat back on her heals and told her, “You can’t marry him.”

Annabeth sat up straighter, mug still in her hand. “Please don’t tell me what to do.”

Silena nodded. “I’m sorry, but …” Annabeth could see her searching for the right thing to say.

“If he hurts you like this now,” Beckendorf said, “it’s probably only going to get worse when you’re married.”

“It’s not like he’s ever hit me.” Annabeth said, putting her mug back on the table. That was true; he’d never even come close.

“But he controls you,” Silena said, “and he undermines you, and he violates your privacy. That’s not any better.”

Annabeth took a shaky breath. “I just … I don’t know what I would do without him.”

“Anything,” Beckendorf said, “you could do anything without him.”

“But we’ve been together for so long,” she said, “and I love him so much. So much of the time it’s so good.”

“Is it so good?” Silena asked. “Or do you spend that eighty percent of the time self-censoring to keep him happy? Do you spend that time waiting for the next time he gets mad at you?”

Annabeth hung her head and began to sob again. _I can’t marry him,_ she thought for the first time. She had had doubts before, but she figured every bride had doubts. But Silena’s question had broken through walls in her mind that kept those doubts out. Was she happy? _I can’t marry him._

“I just don’t want to be alone.” She admitted, still crying.

“Honey,” Silena said, “as long as we’re alive, you’re never on your own.”

Annabeth looked up and leaned forward quickly, pulling Silena in.

“I know you’ve been together for six years –“ Beckendorf started. Annabeth didn’t let him finish his sentence.

She took a deep breath, and before she could remember to be afraid, she told him: “It’ll be ten years this December.”

Silena pulled away from the hug and looked at her. “Aren’t you twenty-five?”

Annabeth nodded. “We went on our first date after my first _Nutcracker_ season as an apprentice.”

Silena gasped and leaned on the coffee table for support. Beckendorf just muttered, “Jesus Christ,” to himself.

Silena looked more shocked than Annabeth had seen her in the entire conversation. “You could really sue him for this.” She said.

Annabeth hadn’t thought of that. Of course, she had known that their age gap was inappropriate and illegal, but it had never occurred to her to press charges over it (especially not considering she was planning on marrying him). “I don’t know,” Annabeth said. “I don’t even know what to do about right now.”

“Are you going to break up with him?” Silena asked.

 _I can’t marry him,_ she thought again, but the words wouldn’t leave her mouth. “I don’t know. I mean, an hour ago I was happily engaged, and now I don’t know what I am. It’s all just a lot, and I want to talk to him about everything and just … get things sorted out.”

Silena nodded. She opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off by the door opening.

Annabeth’s eyes met Luke’s, before he scanned the rest of the apartment, shooting accusatory looks at Beckendorf and Silena. Beckendorf stood up, staring at Luke before asking Annabeth, “Do you want us to stay?”

“No,” Annabeth said, “you guys can leave.”

“Are you going to be okay?” Silena asked. Annabeth nodded, and she hoped that was true.

*****

When the door closed behind them, Luke turned to her, his eyes calm. “What were they up to?”

Annabeth looked at him in disbelief. “You really have no idea why they were here?”

Luke ignored her puffy eyes and runny nose and sat on the couch. “What did they tell you?”

“So, you do know?” Annabeth asked. She stared him down, waiting for him to admit to what he’d done.

“I don’t understand why you’re upset.” He said to her.

She almost laughed at him she was so angry. “Are you kidding?” She asked. “You violated my privacy, you exposed me to another dancer!”

“You’re mad at me because I love you? Because I think you’re beautiful, and I want to show you off?” He asked, moving closer to her.

Annabeth stood up from the chair and walked away from him. “That’s not what you did, and you know it.” He didn’t look guilty or remorseful. He just stared at her like she was the one in the wrong, like she was crazy for not seeing the situation from his point of view. His indifference felt violent. “We were going to be a family, Luke.” She said, her voice quivering. “You promised.”

She walked towards the kitchen, unable to look at him.

“We are going to be a family.” He said.

Annabeth sobbed again. She leaned on the sink, afraid she might throw up, but instead the words she had so far been too afraid to say left her mouth.

“I’m not going to marry you.” She said into the sink.

“What?” He asked, standing up to walk into the kitchen.

“I’m not going to marry you.” She repeated, turning around to face him. “I can’t believe you would hurt me like this.” That was a lie; he had hurt her like this before, just never in this way. 

“Annabeth –” He tried to reach out to her, but she dodged him.

“Don’t touch me.” She said.

“You wanted to be a family. And we will be if you don’t throw that away over something so stupid -”

Annabeth cut him off by throwing her engagement ring at him. When that hit didn’t satisfy her, she picked up the vase of roses on the table, and raised it over her head, letting the flowers and water splash on the floor. When she moved to throw it, Luke flinched. She paused before putting the vase back on the counter. She took a deep breath, overwhelmed by her own anger. They started at each other for a moment. He felt like a stranger to her.

“I want you to get your shit and move out.” She told him.

“You can’t just kick me out.” He protested.

“Oh yes I can, your name’s not on the lease.” She told him.

Luke bent down to pick up the thrown engagement ring. “No,” he said, “but is yours? Or is it your daddy’s name?” He asked. He pressed his body close to hers. This time, Annabeth didn’t move; she stood frozen, half with fear and half with pride. She felt his left hand wrap around the curls at the base of her neck; his right hand held her left hand. From a distance, their position may have seemed romantic, but Annabeth felt vulnerable in his grasp.

She tried to look him in the eyes, but she was met with a cruel look she could barely stand. She stood still, not wanting to make him angrier than he already was.

“You wouldn’t have anything without him or me, Annie.” He told her. Annabeth shook her head as much as she could with his grip still in her hair. _That’s not true,_ she wanted to tell him, _I know that’s not true,_ but she couldn’t find the words. “And he doesn’t love you, not really.” Annabeth started to cry again. “You’d be alone without me.” He said again. She sobbed, resisting the urge to lean against him for comfort as always had.

He dropped the hand from her neck. The ring had been clenched against his palm, leaving an indent in his skin. He took her left hand. “So let’s put this ring back on.”

She clenched her fist, resisting it. “No!” She said, stepping back from him before he could grab her again. Her sock met the puddle the flowers had made, and she slipped backwards, crushing the roses under her weight.

Luke leered over her. He looked like he might spit on her or kick her, but he just frowned and shook his head as he slipped her engagement ring into his pants a pocket.

“You’ve never been less attractive,” he told her, before walking towards their bedroom

Annabeth sat motionless in the puddle of flowers, watching him move through their bedroom, gathering street clothes and dancewear. Annabeth couldn’t be sure of how long he’d been in there, but he emerged eventually with a suitcase and a dance bag.

“The wedding is off,” he said to her, as if it had been his idea, “until you can get your act together.”

When the door slammed behind him, Annabeth curled up on the floor and sobbed, gripping the roses in her fist. She crushed them until the petals stained her fingertips and the thorns cut her palms. 

~~~~~

**Part Two: Sparkling Diamonds**

**“ _He’s your guy when sparks are high, but beware when they start to descend / Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”_**

Silena and Beckendorf hadn’t been far away, reluctant to leave her alone, despite her protests. Once Luke left, they came back, collected her, and brought them to their apartment for the night. Annabeth was grateful for them. She didn’t like burdening people, but they were right. She hadn’t wanted to spend the night alone.

She woke up in the morning to the sound of a blender. Their ‘guest room’ was a futon in the living room near the kitchen. It had been a surprisingly comfortable bed, which Annabeth was grateful for. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.” Beckendorf said, pouring the fruit mix into two glasses and offering one to her.

“Thanks.” Annabeth said, taking the glass. “What time is it?”

“Seven.” he said. “Class starts in a few hours, then dress rehearsal, but I’m sure Chiron will understand if you don’t want to –”

Annabeth shook her head. “There’s no reason for me not to dance today or in the performance. I’m not sick, I’m not injured, I’m doing it.” Luke had tried to take so much from her, and she wouldn’t let him take dance.

Beckendorf could tell that there wasn’t any use arguing with her.

Annabeth stood in the wings, taking deep breaths as she watched Luke at the barre. She picked a spot on the stage as far away from him as she could find, avoiding his looks, and trying to look as though the past night’s events had no effect on her.

Class helped her refocus. It was a methodical focus on technique and control, and that’s what she needed in that moment: control.

Dance had always been her escape. It was what she did or where she went when she felt like there was no one on her side. It didn’t matter that Luke was in the company with her, she tried to tell herself, or that other people in the company had seen photos of her, what mattered was dance.

 _Have other people seen the photos,_ she thought suddenly. She hadn’t asked Luke, but if he showed them so casually to Beckendorf …

She tried to put the thought out of her mind, trying to convince herself that if someone else had seen them, they would have told her. But Luke did have a lot of friends in the company … She snapped herself out of the thought spiral, returning her attention to the ballet master’s next combination.

She wished Luke looked worse. She wished he looked like he had been crying all night, or like he had been betrayed, or like he felt guilty, but he didn’t look like that at all. He just looked like any of the other dancers. Annabeth tore her eyes away from him, refocusing on the combinations, trying to keep Luke as far from her mind as she could.

Annabeth took a deep breath as she stood in front of her dressing room mirror. Her costume glittered with crystals and rhinestones. Even her tights were white to match the tutu and bodice; her pointe shoes had been spray-painted to match. Carefully, she pinned a bejeweled hairpiece to her bun, the final bit on bling on her costume.

“Looking good,” Piper said. Piper was the Diamonds lead in the second cast, and her dressing room roommate. Second cast rehearsed after the first, so Piper was still lounging in her normal dancewear.

“Thanks,” Annabeth said, trying to steady her breathing. She had run to her dressing room quickly after class to avoid as many people as she could, but there was no avoiding Piper. 

Piper had spotted that something was wrong from when they had first gotten into the dressing room. “Are you okay?” She asked Annabeth.

Annabeth shook her head as she peeled off her warmups and took down her hair.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Piper asked.

Annabeth thought for a moment before shaking her head. If she tried to talk about it, she worried she would break, and she didn’t have time for that. She just wanted to relax, enjoy a small lunch, and go out and run the ballet. “No.”

“Okay,” Piper said. “But I’m here if you need me.”

Annabeth nodded. “Thanks.”

Before every show, Annabeth had a recurring nightmare. They were always the same: the orchestra played her cue, she ran out on stage, slipped, and fell on her face. She would get up, and try to continue, but she couldn’t remember the choreography, or she’d do the choreography to the wrong dance. Last night, Annabeth had dreamt that she went out on stage, met the corps and Percy, all in their gilded white costumes, only she was in her red costume from _Don Quixote_ , and she could only remember the steps to Kitri’s act one variation.

She looked down at her costume. It was definitely white. She did a few steps, confirming for herself that she did remember them.

The curtain fell at the end of "Rubies," and Annabeth tried to hide herself in the shadows as much as she could as Luke left the stage, but he found her.

“Good luck.” He said smiling. To anyone else, it seemed sweet; to her, it felt deeply insidious.

She tried to smile back, but she felt her stomach churn looking at him, so she just looked away towards the stage as the corps took their place.

He barely moved away from her, taking a spot in the wings where he could see. _He’s going to watch,_ Annabeth realized. _That’s okay,_ she tried to tell herself. _He’s just a company member. He wants to watch. He’s allowed to._

After a few minutes, the corps left the stage, and the music for the pas de deux began. Percy entered the stage from downstage left, and she entered from upstage right. They moved slowly to meet each other in the middle. For a moment, all her nerves melted away. She was doing the thing she was best at, and nothing could get in her way.

The dance was slow and elegant, and she and Percy worked well together as partners. She didn’t have to think about anything during the dance. She found peace for a moment as her body moved through the music.

She took his hand and dropped down into a penche, a standing split, one leg going straight up in the air as her body dropped forward, supported by him. Her gaze drifted past Percy though, into the wings, where Luke was still watching. She saw him whisper something to one of the young corps girls, who put a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. Annabeth’s heartrate rose as she lifted out of the penche, turning around to move on with the dance. On the other side of the stage, she saw the Stoll brothers, good character dancers, but also good friends of Luke. They were looking at something on a phone, smiling and not paying attention to the dance. _They’re looking at the photos,_ her anxiety told her. _They’ve seen them. How many people do you think have seen them?_

She turned back to Percy; her movements less precise as she began to spiral. He could tell something was wrong, and tried to help her through, holding onto her tighter when he could to help her stay steady. _He’s probably seen them,_ she thought. _He knows. They all know._

She stopped.

She stood flat on the stage as her heartrate rose. Out in the audience, she heard Chiron call for the orchestra to pause, but his voice sounded far away.

“Annabeth? Are you …” Percy started.

She shook her head. “I’m so sorry, I can’t do this.” She said to him. She didn’t recognize her own voice or what she was saying. She looked at Luke one more time. He was smiling.

Annabeth turned and tore off stage in the other direction.

Her dressing room door was opened for her, and she tore inside. She was met by Piper who pulled her into a hug. “I was watching on the monitors.” Piper said, squeezing Annabeth close. “What happened?”

Annabeth sobbed into Piper’s shoulder, holding onto her to keep herself from collapsing, making no effort to explain. Piper didn’t push her to, she just held her until Chiron knocked on their door.

“Annabeth, can I speak with you?” He asked through the door.

Annabeth pulled away from Piper, grabbing tissues to wipes her eyes and nose. “Yes, can I get changed quickly?”

“Of course,” he said, “meet me in my office.”

Annabeth looked at herself in the mirror. Her makeup was running, and her eyes were red, but her hair and costume were still pristine. She took a deep breath and grabbed a makeup wipe, removing all traces of the streaked makeup.

She knew before entering Chiron’s office that she wasn’t going get through the conversation without crying. If he was merciful, she’d still have a job at the end of it.

When she walked into his office, he asked her to sit, looking at her with a removed sympathetic look.

“What happened out there?” He asked her.

Annabeth began to cry despite her best efforts not to. She had hoped she’d make it longer than four seconds.

The story of the night before came spilling out of her. Chiron listened silently, his eyes going wide with shock at some of the details. She finally mustered up all the courage she had and told him: “We’ve been together since I was an apprentice.”

He sat up straighter in his chair. “Well, this is all incredibly unacceptable,” he said.

Annabeth could tell that he didn’t know what else to say to her.

She had spent all morning trying to convince herself that Luke wouldn’t be a distraction. That dancers date all the time and break up. They keep going, why couldn’t she? But she knew it was different. He had a hold on her that he wouldn’t let go of easily.

She took a deep breath and admitted: “I don’t think I can keep dancing here as long as he’s here.” She started to cry again. The idea of losing City Ballet was a nightmare. Losing it because of Luke, though, was never something she expected. But it wasn’t a nightmare at this point, it was a reality she was living. 

“Well, we certainly wouldn’t want to lose you, especially considering the circumstances,” Chiron said. “Let me work on keeping you here.” He said. She wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, though. “Do you know what your next step will be?” He asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t … I haven’t had much time to think about all of this. I just …”

“Why don’t you take some time off?” Chiron suggested. Annabeth looked at him, her heart racing. Other than a few injuries, she had never just taken time off before. “If you think that would help.” He added. “I’ve watched your career since you joined the school at fourteen. I want to see you dance here, but I also want to see you heal.”

She thought for a moment before nodding. “I think a break would help.” She admitted. “I hate to do that though.”

“Take your time,” Chiron said. “The ballet will be here when you come back.”

“Will Luke?” She asked.

“Not if I can help it.” Chiron said. Annabeth let out a deep breath and almost smiled.

“I don’t want this to be huge news in the company, though. I’m sure there will be rumors but –”

“We will do what we can,” Chiron promised her. “Do you have someone to stay with?” He asked. Annabeth nodded, hoping Silena and Beckendorf didn’t mind if she crashed at their place for another few nights. “Great,” he said. “Keep me posted on your situation. And if you pass Piper, tell her she’ll be dancing Diamonds with Percy first cast. Katie will take Piper’s second cast spot.”

Annabeth nodded, and headed out of the office.

When she stepped into the hall, she was met by Percy, still in costume and looking worried. “Hey,” he said, walking up to her, “are you okay?”

Annabeth didn’t know Percy that well, but they had been in the company together for years. This was the first time they had partnered together though, and they had started to become closer. She still didn’t know much about him except that he was kind and funny (and he had eyes so green it should be illegal.)

She was almost overwhelmed that he cared about her enough to wait outside the office to check on her. Luke, she noticed, was nowhere to be seen.

“I’ll be okay,” she told him, hoping that was true. “I’m so sorry.” She added.

“Don’t worry about it. Do you need anything?” He asked.

She shook her head. “Thank you. I’m not going to be performing, though. I’m taking a break for a bit.”

He looked shocked, but he was too polite to ask any questions. “Good luck,” he said. “And really, please let me know if you need anything.”

Annabeth nodded and headed back to her dressing room to pack her things and tell Piper that she’d been promoted to first cast.

~*~*~

_Present Day_

“So, I left, stayed with Beckendorf and Silena for a few days while Luke moved out. A month or so later, I went down to Virginia until December,” she finished telling Percy.

They were sitting on her couch facing each other. She had tucked her knees up to her chest, closing herself off as she told the story. She had asked Percy to come to her apartment during the phone call, sending him an Uber. When she opened the door for him, she nearly collapsed against his chest, pulling him in for a hug. Percy hugged her back, holding her tightly. He felt grateful that she still trusted him enough to be close to him.

As she told him her story, he wanted to pull her in close, but she kept to one side of the couch, hardly looking at him as she recalled some of the more painful details.

Percy hadn’t felt this angry in a long time. He had known men like Luke before, he had lived with one for too long, and he didn’t like the idea of anyone having to put up with that, and certainly not for a decade. Certainly not still.

“Fuck him for doing that to you.” Percy said finally. He tried to conceal his rage; he knew it wouldn’t necessarily be the most helpful thing to add to the conversation.

Annabeth took a deep breath. “He’s the worst, and I can’t believe how much time I wasted with him.”

Percy moved closer to her, just close enough the rest his hand on hers for comfort.

“Did you ever end up pressing charges or anything?” He asked.

Annabeth shook her head. “I tried. It seemed like the right thing to do. I met with a lawyer and it was … awful. It was just hours of traumatizing questions of whether or not we had evidence or foundation. It wasn’t helping me get better. There was one moment where I realized that I if I had to sit on the stand, I’d be more likely to throw up or have a panic attack, rather than offering any evidence to help my case.

“So eventually, I sat down and thought about what I actually wanted. And I wanted to heal, which wouldn’t happen as long as this process was on going. I wanted him out of City Ballet, which Chiron was already working on, and I wanted him out of my life, and to get rid of the photos. So, we settled between the two of us. He’d leave the ballet and move to Portland to work for his dad, which he did, and he even let me delete the photos of his phone myself.” She let out a grim laugh. “Should have figured he had them somewhere else.”

She took a deep breath and continued. “But, anyway, he left, and I hadn’t heard from him until today.”

“Do you think you’ll go forward with something now?” Percy asked. “Because I’m sure Mr. Gmail could get that email back if you –”

Annabeth shook her head. “Probably not. I mean, maybe? I don’t know. I’ll probably call him at some point and ask about today, but I still don’t think I’m ready for any legal process.”

“Don’t you want him to face consequences?” Percy asked. Percy thought back to Gabe, and how many times he wished that his mom would divorce him, or that a school councilor would notice that Percy was bruised. That someone would do something to get him out of his and his mom’s lives. None of that ever happened. The happiest day of Percy’s life was when they’d found Gabe in the Hudson – some unsettled poker debt and a bar fight. His mom had never let him know all the details, but Percy always figured that his body must have been even more bloated and smelly after a few days in the river. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t want something similar for Luke, instead of him just walking away to a different life.

“I wanted to hurt him,” she admitted. “When I held up that vase, I wanted to hurt him, to make him bleed, to make him vulnerable. But more than that, I wanted to keep my career, to keep my life.”

“Do you think your career would be ruined by exposing him? You’ve already got Chiron on your side.”

“No,” She told him. She paused for a minute, thinking about what to say.

“You know, the day after he moved out, _Jewels_ opened,” she said. “I went and sat all the way in the back. Chiron had pulled Luke from “Rubies,” but Jason was dancing in his place. From all the way in the back, he looked like him. But that didn’t bother me. I felt nothing. The thought of him being on that stage didn’t make me angry, and the thought of him never dancing on it again didn’t make me happy. But then “Diamonds” started. And I saw you, up on stage with Piper, and I just started to cry. Because I didn’t know if I’d ever be on that stage again.

“I left New York a few days later, and I spent months with therapists, and old dance teachers, and my journal, and Greys Anatomy reruns, just trying to figure out what do, and …” She trailed off and stared at her hands as she took a deep breath. Finally, she looked back at Percy. “I’m just trying to do what’ll make me happy, and, right now, pressing charges won’t do that, I don’t think.”

Percy didn’t say anything. She started to cry again, and he handed her a tissue and her glass of water, offering a short pause before she continued.

“We were engaged. I told him I wanted to marry him! We were a month away from the wedding. I had a dress! _Have_ a dress; it’s still in my closet.” She looked over towards her room, her gaze distant.

“I know we like to think we live in some liberal utopia, but how many judges will look at this case – look at me – and think I’m just some vindictive would-be bride who got dumped? I have no evidence of our relationship before I was 18, and even then, it’s slim. Most people think we started dating when I was 20! It’s just my word against his.” Percy wanted to tell her that she was wrong, that there would be judges who would take her seriously. Or lawyers who would encourage him to settle, getting her a restraining order or something. But he knew Annabeth was smart; if she didn’t think that was possible or good for her, she wouldn’t do it.

She shook her head, looking down again, blonde curls a curtain covering her face. “And for what? Maybe he’ll face consequences if put before the right judge, but what are the consequences for me? I have to sit in front of a room of people I don’t know and tell this story again? Ask them to believe me?” She sobbed again.

“I never even told my dad what happened. What? Am I supposed to sit in court and say, ‘Sorry dad, you trusted me to go off to New York and I got taken advantage of for a decade in the apartment you pay for? Now watch some lawyer hold up nude photos of me?” She laughed and sobbed at the same time before continuing. “No. I can’t do that.” She took a deep breath and took a sip of water before continuing.

“Percy, I’m so embarrassed. I’ve spent the last few months trying to understand that I was taken advantage of, and harmed, and that it all wasn’t my fault, but … I lived with him for five years. I believed him when he told me he loved me. And not just when I was sixteen. I believed him when I was twenty-five. For ten years, I thought he loved me. And I’ve never been so wrong about something, and I am so embarrassed. I have a _fucking_ wedding dress in my closet and –” she cut herself off with her own sobs, taking a few more tissues from Percy, who just rested a comforting hand on her leg as she cried.

She caught her breath after a moment. “I don’t want people in the company to know what happened. Going to trial would just mean everyone finding out. I don’t want rumors that I’ve slept my way to the top to get worse. I don’t want people to judge me, or pity me, or hate me. I don’t want people to know the photos exists, because they’ll just go looking for them. I just … I can’t give up what I have right now for a trial that might result in nothing.” She took a deep breath. “I know it might not be the right thing to do. It’s not the brave thing. But it’s what will make me happy right now.”

Percy nodded. It didn’t matter what he wanted to do to Luke, or what he felt he deserved, he reminded himself. He was at Annabeth’s apartment to comfort her, not to try and tell her what to do.

“You know, I danced the Sugar Plum Fairy when I was seventeen?” She said. Percy nodded, he had heard that story before, but he didn’t know why she was telling it. “I was in the morning class,” she continued, “before the matinee. I was going on that night as snowflake and flower. Right before class started, Chiron came up to me and told me that whoever was dancing it that night was out. I don’t even remember who I replaced, but he told me that I was going to do it. I had about four hours to learn it, get in a costume, and get on stage. And I remember Lee Fletcher was my cavalier.” Percy knew Lee, of course, he was one of the oldest dancers in the company. He had retired two years ago, but he still came back for the _Nutcracker_ to play Drosselmeyer. He was possibly one of the kindest people Percy had met at City Ballet besides Beckendorf.

“So, Lee and I go into a studio and just start running the dance over and over with a ballet master. Then I got into a costume and waited for act two to start. While I was waiting, I remember him coming up to me and saying ‘Don’t worry. If you forget the steps, just make it up. If you forget the steps to the pas de deux, just make it up, and I’ll follow your lead.’ And I could tell that he was kind of joking to lighten the mood, but also very serious, and that was exactly what I needed to hear. But, anyway, I went out for the solo, it went great. We did the pas de deux later, it went great, and I felt like I was on top of the world. I had debuted at Sugar Plum at seventeen.” She smiled. “And then I went backstage, and one of the ballet masters just said, ‘great job Annabeth. Go bring that costume back to the shop, we need you as a party guest, a snowflake, and a flower tonight.’ And that was it. I had my moment, and it was over as quickly as it had been given to me.

“And then, this November, I agreed to do some guesting performances at my youth company. I would be their Sugar Plum for their _Nutcracker_ performances for the first two weeks of December, and then I would move back to New York right before Christmas. And then Chiron called me and asked if I was coming back for _Nutcracker_. I told him I’d be back in the city on December 20th, and that was planning on doing the Spring season shows, but not _Nutcracker_. And he said ‘December 20th? Can I put you in for shows after then?’”

“And I just said ‘yes, of course.’ I didn’t realize until I said that how much I wanted to be back. He put me in for three shows, all with Beckendorf. The first one was December 23rd, and I was standing in the wings, waiting to go on. I felt so nervous and so calm at the same time. Then Lee came up behind me, and he was all dressed up as Drosselmeyer, and he said ‘remember, if you forget the steps, just make them up.’” Her voice caught, and she started to cry again, but she spoke through it. “Then he hugged me and told me that he was glad I was back.

“I thought no one remembered that day. It had all happened so quickly. No one was in the audience to support me. I didn’t even have time to call my friends or family to let them know it was happening, and it was over so fast. But for him to come up to me nine years later and show that he remembered that day, and that he knew how important it was to me it just … it meant to world to me. And I knew that this was where I wanted to be and dance for the rest of my career.

“And I just want _Sleeping Beauty_ to be perfect, because I want people to know that I am back, I’m not going anywhere, and that I’ve worked hard and I’m good, and I’m not giving that up.” She paused and took his hand. “And I know you understand that.” Percy nodded. He did understand. The two of them had come from incredibly different trainings and upbringings, but somehow, they had both landed in similar situations. They were leading a ballet together, and half the company thought she wasn’t qualified to do it, and the other half thought he wasn’t qualified. But they were all wrong, and they would show them.

She squeezed his hand but kept holding on. “Today, when I was in costume and on stage again, I felt so strong. I was balanced on two toes, and I felt like nothing in the world could knock me over. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way.” She smiled faintly, looking up at Percy. “I just want to keep feeling that way for right now.”

Percy nodded and smiled. “It’s your decision, and I won’t try and push you in any other direction,” he promised. “But I’m by your side no matter what.”

“Thank you, that means a lot.”

Percy took a deep breath. “I do kind of understand what you’re going through.”

He ended up telling her most of the details he remembered about Gabe. Their ‘guys secret’ where Percy gave him poker money or else Gabe would punch his lights out. His yelling, his smell, and the day Percy realized he hadn’t been the only one being hurt by Gabe. Annabeth kept holding his hand as he talked through the story, offering him comforting squeezes when it became too much.

“Then one day, he turned up dead in the river, and it seemed like all of our problems were over.” He said. “My mom and I were suspects for a little while, but they eventually figured out it was some gambling dispute turned bar fight.”

“Who knew that of all the things, this is something we’d have in common?” Annabeth joked. Percy laughed for the first time that evening.

Percy only noticed how long they had been holding hands when Annabeth let go of his. She turned her body to face foreword, putting her feet on the ground for the first time in hours. “Anyway, I hate to ask you this,” Annabeth said, “but would you be willing to stay here tonight? Just in case he tries to come around or something? If not, I can call Silena, I’m sure –”

“Annabeth,” Percy said, “of course I’ll stay.”

She let out a deep breath and smiled. “Thanks. You can take the bed.” She said.

“Absolutely not. I’ll be fine on the couch. I’m not taking your bed away from you.”

“No, seriously, I’ll be fine. Besides, this is a pull-out couch.” She said, patting the couch cushions.

“That might be worse.” He said.

She stood up and stretched. “How about we settle this later, and for the time being, we pop on a movie? I can make popcorn.”

“That would be fantastic.” Percy said. They didn’t have a rehearsal the next two days, so they could afford to stay up a little late. They both needed to unwind.

“I have Netflix. I used to have more DVDs, but Luke took most of them when he moved out. All he left were _Moulin Rouge_ and the behind the scenes footage for the _Lord of the Rings_ movies.” She said, walking towards the kitchen.

“Wow, what a psycho.” Percy said.

“He took _Psycho_ too.” She added. Percy laughed, before standing up.

“Can I help you with anything?”

“Wanna melt the butter?”

A few minutes later, they were sitting on Annabeth’s couch, under the same blanket with a bowl of popcorn in between them, as Baz Luhrmann’s colorful early 2000s masterpiece started. Musicals weren’t Percy’s favorite genre (although he was always partial to Ewan McGregor), but he understood them. They were like ballet. Musicals and ballets weren't things that your logic understood, but your emotions did. And Annabeth had a number of emotional reactions to the film.

By “El Tango De Roxanne,” they had finished the bowl of popcorn, setting it on the table, and she had taken his hand, gripping it with anticipation as the scene went on.

Percy worried about their movie choice the Duke ripped the diamond necklace from Satine’s neck, before stripping her and abusing her, but Annabeth kept her eyes forward as the music swelled. _“You made me believe that you loved me,”_ The Duke said to Staine. Annabeth didn’t move, but Percy squeezed her hand as the Duke tore at Satine’s clothes. She didn’t move until Satine’s death; Percy watched her quickly wipe tears from her face.

“Luke always hated this movie.” She said. “Probably why he left it.”

Percy could figure out that a movie that punishes jealousy in love would make Luke squirm. He wanted to ask what Luke had against the behind the scenes footage of _The Lord of the Rings,_ but it didn’t seem like the appropriate time.

When the credits rolled, Annabeth wiped her eyes quickly, before standing up to take the popcorn bowl to the kitchen.

“So,” she said, “you’re taking the bed?”

“Absolutely not,” Percy said back, “you’ve had a very long day, and it’s your bed. You’re taking it.”

“You are my guest and an absolute saint for listening to me for hours and hours.” She walked back to the couch and poked him in the chest. “You are taking it.”

Percy laid down on the couch. “Nope, I’m just fine right here.”

Annabeth groaned. “You know what? It’s a king-sized bed, why don’t we each just pick a side?” Her face was a little red, but that might have just been from crying.

Percy nodded, trying to seem casual. They had done plenty of intimate things on stage, but that was their job. Sharing a bed platonically felt like a new level of intimacy unmatched by any ballet moves or stage kisses. “Alright, but you’re picking which side first.”

“Fine,” she agreed. “If you need something to change into, I might have something.” She offered. 

Percy looked down at his sweatpants and tee shirt. Usually, he just slept in his boxers, but that wouldn’t do for tonight. “I’ll be alright in this.” He promised.

They took turns in the bathroom, and Annabeth found him an extra toothbrush to use, which he was grateful for. He texted his mom, briefly explaining the situation to her. Sally had texted back: _“Thank you for staying with her, I’m sure she appreciates it. Be safe.”_

 _“It’s not like that.”_ He texted back. She just sent back the shrug emoji and a blue heart.

When he stepped out of the bathroom, Annabeth was already in her pajamas – just a plain black tee shirt and flannel pants. She had gotten under the covers on the side near the window.

Percy almost smiled getting into bed with her, but he held back, not wanting to make anything weird. It was weird enough being in Annabeth’s bedroom at all. Most of her furniture was white, and her shelves and dressers were decorated in photos of her dancing, trophies, and a few old pairs of pointe shoes that she had written the date on and the name of a show. Before she turned the light off, Percy noticed a pair hanging by their ribbons over the nightstand on his side. They were particularly faded with age, and the ribbons were fraying. “ _The Nutcracker, 12/6/2011”_ they said. Percy smiled.

“Thanks again for staying.” Annabeth said, already rolled over away from him.

“Of course.”

She reached over to the lamp on her nightstand and clicked it off, leaving them alone in the dark. 


	6. Vision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katheryn Morgan (soloist with the Miami City Ballet) has recently uploaded an interview with the dancer and author of "A Final Bow for Yellowface" Phil Chan, where they discuss race in ballet. Please consider checking it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYw2pLn9CAg

Percy woke up to the soft February sun beaming in his face through Annabeth’s large bedroom window. When he opened his eyes, squinting in the sunlight, he saw that she had already gotten up. He rolled over to check his phone – 8:30 a.m.

They both had today and the next day off before the show as other casts ran their dress rehearsals. Usually he spent his days off wandering the city, catching up on TV, or hanging out with Grover once his boring and normal nine-to-five job at a nonprofit ended. But those days off didn’t usually start in Annabeth Chase’s bed – in face, none of them ever had. He hoped that maybe they’d end up spending the day together.

Or maybe she’d ask him to leave as soon as he left the bed.

He stayed there for another moment, trying to think of the perfect “spend the day with me” line, but he came up blank. He’d just have to wing it.

He opened the door and stepped into the living room. Annabeth was standing in the kitchen over a frying pan, still in her pajamas (now rumpled from a night of sleep), and her blonde hair was up in a high ponytail, the ends tangled together.

She looked up and smiled at him. Percy’s heart raced, _fuck,_ he thought, _she’s gorgeous._ Before he could say anything to her, though, she told him: “You drool when you sleep.”

Percy flushed, a hand going up to his mouth to wipe away any trace of drool that might still be there. She laughed at him, and he smiled.

She turned back to the frying pan. “I’m making eggs. I hope that’s okay.”

“Eggs are great,” he said. “I thought you didn’t cook.”

She shrugged. “I told you, I’m not completely incompetent. I can scramble an egg reasonably well.” She said, dishing out the servings onto two plates.

Percy took a seat at the table. “Have you been up long?” He asked.

“No, ‘bout half an hour.” She said. “Coffee?” She offered.

He nodded, and she put a mug down in front of him, and then his plate of eggs and avocado toast.

She sat down at the other end of the table.

“Thanks,” Percy said, about to dig in.

He piled some eggs on top of his toast and took a bite. They were good, although he would struggle to find an adult who couldn’t make a decent scrambled egg. “How are you feeling?” He asked.

“Better,” she said. “A lot better. Thanks for listening to me and for staying the night.”

Percy smiled. “Of course, any time.” He realized what he said and felt his ears get hot. “Anyway …” he tried to think of literally anything else to say, but nothing came to mind. Annabeth saved him, though.

“Do you have any plans for today?” Annabeth asked.

It took a moment for Percy to register what she had said. He was preoccupied by the casual way she sat at the other edge of the table, sunlight bouncing off her curls, as if they sat together like this every day.

Finally, though, he remembered she’d asked him a question. “No, not really.” He told her.

“Do you want to hang out downtown for a little while?” She asked.

Percy smiled. “Sure, that’d be great.”

Percy stood in front of Annabeth bathroom mirror, which had fogged up with steam from his shower. She had showered before him and was getting ready in her bedroom.

He leaned forward and drew a smiley face on her mirror for her to discover the next time she showered.

He dressed quickly, only having the same sweatpants and tee shirt from the night before, but it would have to do.

Annabeth was waiting on her couch for him to get ready. She was dressed in a light pink sweater and light jeans with her hair braided over her shoulder.

“Ready to go?” She asked.

Percy nodded. They grabbed their jackets and headed out the door.

~*~*~

They walked down the avenue to Washington Square Park, stopping on the way to indulge in some hot chocolates. It was just starting to get a little warmer – they daily temperature tended to hang out in the forties during the day, rather than what Percy called ‘face hurting temperatures.’

Still, he wished it was a little warmer so they could sit on a bench or the grass for a while and just relax in the Spring sun. But the cold sun of the end of February would have to do.

It did come with its perks, Percy realized, when a cold wind blew, prompting Annabeth to instinctively move closer to him. He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into his chest for a moment as the breeze blew by. When it was over, they parted, neither blushing or uncomfortable.

Sure, he was usually physically close to her, but stage intimacy was far less erotic than many people assumed. On stage or during rehearsal, both were sweaty, trying not to breath too hard, and mostly worrying about their own steps and safety and the safety of their partner.

A gentle closeness so far removed from the studio, though, felt deeply intimate. He almost reached down to hold her hand, but she had it in her jacket pocket. He left his hand by his side in case she had the same thought, but she never reached for it.

When they reached the arch, Annabeth paused in front of it. “You know, if I hadn’t joined the company, I would have gone to school for architecture.”

“Really?” Percy asked, looking at her.

She nodded. “I guess I kind of am or was at least.” She said. “I was part time at NYU for a few years, but between being a principal, and planning a wedding, then calling off the wedding, and everything that came after that, I haven’t taken a class in almost …” she paused, “almost two years, I guess.”

“Why architecture?” Percy asked.

She shrugged. “Aesthetics, partly. I really enjoy aesthetic, design, and flow. Obviously, I do, or I wouldn’t be a dancer. But buildings can have all of those things too, just not in the same way.” She sipped her hot chocolate. “It’s also the opposite of dance. Buildings are static, and they’re so permanent.”

Percy nodded. The fleeting nature of ballet loomed over all of them. Most men could go until thirty-five at least, and a lot of women made it to forty, if not longer. But one bad injury could end a career in an instant.

“Do you want to be an architect when you retire?” He asked.

She shrugged. “Maybe, but that’s a hard career to start at forty. Knowing myself I’ll end up teaching or choreographing. I don’t think I could ever really leave it behind, you know?”

“You could design theaters.” He suggested.

She smiled at him like she had had the thought before. “Yeah, I could.” Her hand dropped out of her pocket and rested near his, but he didn’t feel courageous enough to take it. “What about you?” She asked.

“Oh, I have no idea.” Percy said. “I barely graduate high school.” He admitted. “College is not my speed, so I’ll probably linger in the ballet world as long as they’ll have me.”

She bumped him with her shoulder. “Come on, you have no ideas?” He shook his head. “Wildest dream? If a genie showed up right now and told you he’d give you your dream career, what would it be?”

“Well,” Percy said, “if I’m wishing for stuff, I’d just wish to be able to dance forever.”

“Alright that’s on me,” Annabeth said, laughing, “I set the bar too low.” She took his hand, and his breath caught. “Seriously, I won’t judge you.”

It was a hard question to answer. Percy had spent a lot of time in his training thinking about what he’d do if he didn’t get a company contract when his training ended. Teaching was one option, but he didn’t know if he’d like doing that if his own dreams had fallen through. With his poor grades, he always figured he’d just get a retail or restaurant job and try and work his way through management and dance on the weekends.

But if today were the day that he had to stop dancing …

“I guess I’d teach,” he admitted, “but I don’t know if I’d want to teach at the academy.”

“Why not?” She asked. They started walking out of the park and towards the street, wandering aimlessly through the West Village.

He had never really wanted to teach at the academy, he realized. Sure, the prospect of training a new group of kids who would go on to join City Ballet, Miami, Royal Ballet, Ballet West, and all the other big companies was exciting, but he was lucky to have had that education at all. So many things had to go right in his life to even make it into their ranks – a good ballet teacher off the bat, scholarship money, his mom marrying a man who had a savings account and cared about her son. Without any of those things, Percy wouldn’t have a career.

“I was on my own at the academy,” he said, “one of the only kids who started late and didn’t have great training before that. Most other kids were,” _like you,_ he though, but he didn’t say it, “born lucky. They had exposure to ballet young, good training, and they never had to worry about how they were going to pay for things. I had to worry about that all the time. And I was still luckier than most.” He said. “Just think about how many talented kids there are just on my block alone that will never get my chance.” He looked ahead towards the street. The West Village had once a bohemian shithole, but (thanks in no small part to NYU), it had been gentrified into one of the most expensive areas in the city. “I guess if I could do anything I’d just try and help those kids. Don’t know how I’d do it, but that’s what I’d really like to do.” He told her. “I know it’s crazy.”

She stopped walking and pulled him to the side of the path, getting out of every one’s way.

“It’s not crazy.” She said.

For a moment on the edge of the sidewalk, hugging the wall of some coffee shop, neither of them moved. She looked at him, tilting her head up just slightly to look him in the eye. When she licked her lips slightly, Percy’s heart almost exploded, sure that she was going to lean in. But instead she broke the tension, turning back to the middle of the sidewalk to keep forward, dropping his hand.

“At least,” she said, not looking at him, “not as crazy as wanting to pivot to architecture.”

He jogged to catch up with her. “That’s not crazy either. Besides, if I know you at all, I know nothing will stop you from getting what you want.”

She smiled, looking down at the sidewalk as she walked forward. “Nothing stops you either as far as I can tell.”

“I am notoriously scrappy.” He said, pulling a laugh out her, which dissolved any remain uncomfortable tension while taking away any remaining hope of a kiss.

~*~*~

When they finally got too cold to stand walking around any longer, they ducked into a dimly lit pub.

“Do you ever just wish you had a job where you didn’t have to worry so much about what you ate and drank?” Annabeth asked him. They did eat a lot, of course. They both probably ate more than the average person, they just also had to eat way healthier than the average person.

“Pretty much every day.” Percy said. “Every time a season ends, I just crush a cheeseburger, first thing.”

Annabeth had been to the pub before, and guided Percy through some good options on the menu.

Their conversation stayed light – childhood stories, embarrassing moments, favorite TV shows. When Annabeth started to ramble about architecture being a universal language for people, and how _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_ is actually all about the building, and how the novel saved the church, Percy couldn’t stop smiling. Her gaze was distant, but her eyes were bright. Percy was delighted to see her so happy.

When the check came, Annabeth grabbed it off the table before Percy could even reach for it.

“Absolutely not,” Annabeth said when Percy reached across the table. “You’ve done so much for me the last few days, buying you lunch is the least I can do.”

Percy didn’t protest anymore, instead just choosing to thank her for the meal. He hoped it wasn’t the last one they got to share together.

~*~*~

As the afternoon went on and the sun started to set, Percy realized he needed to go home. He didn’t want to leave Annabeth, but he also didn’t want to be wearing the same clothes for twenty-four hours.

“I can come back if you need anything, or if Luke comes around,” he said as they headed towards the subway.

Annabeth shook her head. “I should be fine. I think I’m going to call Piper or Silena and talk some things out with them.” _You can talk to me,_ Percy wanted to insist. But he knew she was closer with them than with him, no matter what he wanted to be true.

“Call me if you need anything,” he told her. She nodded and promised she would.

They stood at the top of the subway stairs, doing their best to stay out of everyone else’s way, but that was almost impossible to do when you were standing still on New York City sidewalk.

“Percy,” she said looking up at him, “thank you. Seriously, thank you for everything.” She pulled him into a tight hug, burying her face in his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to hold her even closer. Her hair smelled like lemons.

“Anytime,” he told her. He pressed a gentle kiss into the top of her head; if she noticed or minded, she didn’t show any sign of it.

Annabeth pulled away after a little too long (not that Percy minded) and smiled at him. “Get home safe,” she said, before turning to head towards her apartment.

~*~*~

Percy rested his head back against the subway window, grateful for a seat on his way back up town, trying to remember the way Annabeth’s hair smelled, and the ways her eyes lit up when she was excited.

He hoped that they stayed close when they weren’t dancing together anymore. The have to, he figured. They were friends now, not just coworkers or dance partners.

He knew from experience that performances come and go too quickly – a month of rehearsal just for four shows? It was almost unfair. Lee’s husband, a Broadway actor, had once complained about his eight shows a week schedule at a company party. Eight _Sleeping Beauty’s_ a week was probably physically impossible, but Percy did sometimes miss doing six or eight ballets a week as an apprentice or corps member. He certainly wouldn’t pass up one or two extra performances of _Sleeping Beauty_ if he had the chance _._ He wanted to hold onto it for just a little bit longer. 

~*~*~

The next morning, Percy woke up feeling like he was an astronaut on the moon, hearing the air leave his spacesuit, but he could not find the leak. He didn’t remember his dream, but his heart was beating hard and fast. He performed tomorrow, he remembered. He took a deep breath, but it didn’t do anything to calm his anxiety. Throughout his morning routine, of breakfast, palates, and stretching, he felt like he was the vice president of anxiety, and the president was nowhere to be found.

He had fleeting moments of confidence as a dancer – moments where he was sure he was good, that he was going to succeed, moments where, if he closed his eyes, he could swear that he was flying not just jumping. But mostly he would bag on himself for things he couldn’t do or didn’t do well. Those fleeing moments of confidence could be diminished by any small error.

He had to succeed. Part of it was vindictive – people had always underestimated him. But most of it felt like debt. His mother had sacrificed so much just to get him to dance practice and to keep him enrolled at the school. If he never made principal …

When he was eleven and his YMCA teacher told Sally that he should be in more advanced classes, Sally asked him if he wanted to continue ballet. _Just say no,_ he had told himself, knowing that there was no way his mom could pay for all the lessons he’d need. It would hurt less to stop dancing at eleven than to make it all the way to fourteen or fifteen only to give it up then.

He had spent as much time in dance classes dancing as he spent worrying that at some point the rug would be pulled out from under him, and he’d lose it all. That there would be a point where he just couldn’t continue. He already spent most of his training playing catch-up with people who had been dancing since they could stand, and he always feared his career being stunted on the other side.

But when he was eleven, and he told his mom he wanted to stop dancing, he had called him on his lie. “If you want to do it, we will do what we have to do,” she told him. That meant he had to switch to public school and work jobs to pay for summer intensives and after-school classes. Even with all that, and his scholarships, it was Paul that made any of it possible. He’d gotten lucky; finally, some of that luck that seemed to grace some of the worst people finally trickled down to him and his mom. She had married a man with a savings account and love of the arts. He had no problem helping them pay for his summer intensives or his academy tuition.

He thought his meeting with Chiron at the end of his last year in the school. The year before, he had been encouraged to try out for other companies but told that an apprenticeship wasn’t out of the picture. When he got back to his apartment, he tried not to tell his mom, to keep it a secret and to work as hard as he could the next year to earn his spot.

He’d cried as soon as he saw her though; guilt and disappointment cut through his stomach and chest like a knife. Sally had tried to assure him that he wasn’t a failure, but that didn’t change any of his thinking on the issue.

When _Nutcracker_ season came, and Percy wasn’t offered an apprenticeship, he figured that it truly was over. He had almost gotten to a point where he thought his entire dance career was over, until Lupa Lopez had called him back about his audition, and offered him a spot at Miami. His mom had let him have a glass of Champaign to celebrate. 

Chiron was less enthusiastic than his mother had been. When Percy told him the good news, he kept a straight face and asked, “Have you signed anything yet?”

“No.”

“Good, don’t.”

He was called into the office two days later. “Lupa and I have the same eye for dancers,” he said. “She’s taken some of my best away from me. So, it wasn’t surprising to hear that she was interested in you joining her company. She must see the same things in you that I see.”

Percy’s eyes went wide.

“You’re talented, Percy,” Chiron continued, “and disciplined,” that was the first time a teacher had said that about him, he realized. Chiron handed Percy a stack of a few papers. “And you should stay with City Ballet.”

It took Percy a moment to realize what he was looking at. His dyslexia only acted up when he got stressed. Finally, he deciphered it. “Wait … is this for real?” He was holding an apprentice contract with his name on it.

“Sorry for making you go on all of those auditions,” Chiron said.

Percy hadn’t even waited to get home to tell his mom. Instead, he found a quiet stairwell where he could tell her and cry with her. He thought she was going to break his ribs with how tightly she hugged him when he got home. “I’m just so happy,” she said, “that you don’t have to move to Miami.”

He was tired of barely succeeding – barely making it into the academy, barely getting an apprenticeship, barely getting leading roles. He wondered for a moment if she had these fleeing moments of confidence met quickly by self-doubt, before he remembered their last _Diamonds_ rehearsal. Percy was terrified when she had stopped dancing, and he became more worried when he saw the frantic look in her eyes. She had broken, he realized; she had hit a level of doubt and pain that you can’t easily pull yourself out of.

He didn’t, Percy realized, have the luxury of breaking, though. If he left, there was no guarantee that his spot would be there when he came back. He could only bend.

Annabeth couldn’t break either. Percy could end up stagnant if the shows didn’t go well. If Annabeth broke again, though, her career could be over.

They both had to bend and bend far. _Four shows,_ Percy realized, _four shows to get it right. Just don’t forget the choreography, and don’t drop her._ He told himself. _And if you forget the choreography, just make it up._

Luke had left a principal male spot open that Chiron still hadn’t filled. In a fleeting moment of confidence, Percy told himself _You’re the perfect fit._

He felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, but he couldn’t see what was at the bottom. He was safe as long as he stayed on land. If he jumped, he could die, or he could land safely in the water. There wasn’t another way forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No dances in this one, but the next chapter will be the performances. 
> 
> Quick disclaimer. I know that I do always have the disclaimer at the end of the story that none of this is based off of real dancers or real people. That is still very true. I bring this up because the current artistic director of Miami City Ballet is Lourdes Lopez. I borrowed her name and job title for this chapter, but Lupa is in no way otherwise based off of Lourdes. Lupa as a character will remain entirely based off of Lupa from the books, with no other influence from Lourdes other than name and job.


	7. The Sleeping Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy and Annabeth perform The Sleeping Beauty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all of the lovely comments on the story so far! This chapter is a turning point in the story, as we finally see The Sleeping Beauty performances! 
> 
> Dances mentioned:   
> Sleeping Beauty Ballet (full): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6eA4PjWhws&t=6920s  
> The Rose Adagio & Aurora's entrance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4aLIeg2Mik  
> The Adagio balances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8evZeAAFNY  
> The Prince's Solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38MThq60EYc&list=FLwBqFKdPjW4-_tL5TEZps4A&index=2  
> The Wedding Pas De Deux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsjk4e2yz2E

Percy’s heart was pounding when he woke up. He was sure he had an anxiety nightmare, but the details of it were already fading. They were all usually the same – he would leave his apartment too late, the subway would get stuck underground, something – _everything_ – would keep him from getting to the theater on time. In the dreams, he never got to the theater at all before waking up; he always ended up stuck in a tunnel or in a car accident woefully distant from Lincoln Center.

This morning was no different.

He rolled out of bed, turned off his alarm, and dragged himself into the kitchen. His stomach felt too restless for food, but he knew he needed it.

His mom had circled todays date on their wall calendar, and written _TSB_ in bright pink marker. His family’s tickets were under a fridge magnet, waiting for them to leave for the theater in about twelve hours. Percy would leave hours ahead of them, though, heading to the theater by himself for the last warm up and rehearsal they would have.

As he waited for his coffee to brew, he heard his mom walk into the kitchen. She offered to make him breakfast, an offer that Percy graciously accepted.

Before she started to cook, she pulled Percy into a hug. “You’re going to be amazing,” she told him.

“What if I’m not?”

“You’ve already done it once,” she said, “so you can do it again.”

~*~*~

Two hours later, Percy’s stomach had settled, mixing nervousness with excitement as the 1 train pulled into his stop.

Annabeth smiled at him when he walked into the studio, and excitement overtook nervousness for just a moment.

~*~*~

On his lunch break, Percy stopped at a flower shop and picked up a dozen pink roses.

“Someone special?” The florist asked.

“Yeah,” he said, smiling into the bouquet. “She is.”

~*~*~

Percy was dressed in his warmups, ready to head to the stage for the barre before the show. The nerves had returned in full force, but they were helping him. He jumped up and down in his dressing room, trying to get his legs warm before heading downstairs. He checked his phone.

He had half a dozen messages from his mom, Grover, Beckendorf and Silena, all wishing him good luck.

 _3:55,_ his phone read. _Five minutes to barre._ He grabbed the flowers and headed to Annabeth’s dressing room.

~*~*~

She smiled wide when she opened the door, and then she noticed the flowers. Her eyes lit up, but her eyebrows furrowed. “What are these for?”

“They’re for you,” he said, holding them out to her. “A congratulations, a thank you, and a good luck.”

She took them, smiling wide. “A thank you? For what?” She walked further into her dressing room and walked over to a table that already had a bouquet of flowers – these ones were multicolored and already in a vase.

Percy shrugged. “For being patient with me, and for being such a good friend, and stuff,” he said, wandering into her dressing room.

She peeled back the plastic and tissue paper holding the flowers together and stuck them in the vase with the other flowers. It was a cramped arrangement, but it made Percy happy.

“Who else sent you flowers?” He asked.

“My family,” she said.

“Are the coming tonight?”

“My dad is. My step-mom and brothers can’t make it, though.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be, I won’t miss them,” she fluffed up the arrangement a bit, moving more of Percy’s roses to the front. “They’re beautiful,” she said, still turned away from him. She turned back and walked towards him, her arms open.

Percy, praying to every possible god that he didn’t misunderstand the gesture, pulled her in close for a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered into his chest. He was getting use to hugging her. He hoped that these hugs didn’t go away after the show ended.

With her pressed so close to him, he could feel her heart being fast. He wondered if she could feel his matching the tempo.

“You’re going to do great,” he said, rubbing her back.

She pulled away slightly, just enough to look him in the eyes, but close enough still to keep her arms around him. “We’re going to do great,” she said, smiling. It sounded like a promise.

~*~*~

Percy stepped out of his dressing room as the overture began. He had nearly an hour before he was needed on stage, but he wanted to see Piper and Annabeth perform in the prologue and act one. There wasn’t a better seat in the house than the one he got – right in the wings, only ten feet away; the easiest place to support your friends.

When he got to the side of the stage, he saw Annabeth practicing her balances – one hand was on a barre, one leg was back in attitude, and she would lift her arm off the barre and into fifth position every few seconds. She was hardly shaking. She was strong.

When she finally dropped down, satisfied with her backstage performance, Percy walked over.

“You’re steady as a rock,” he said.

She forced herself to smile at him through the nerves that were painted on her face. He knew they would melt away once she stepped into the spotlight and heard the music, but he wished he could take them away from her now.

“I just hope I do it right.”

“You’ve already done it once,” he said, “you can do it again.”

She took both of his hands in hers. “Thank you.” Her smile looked less forced this time.

~*~*~

Percy gave Annabeth some space as she prepared to take the stage for the adagio. From his place about ten feet downstage of her, he watched her take a few deep breaths, roll her neck from side to side, and shake out her hands, as if the nerves would fly out of her fingertips.

Finally, the music to her entrance stated.

Percy didn’t envy her entrance at all. “It’s like I’m being shot out of a cannon,” she had complained to him once.

But she looked effervescent, truly like a sixteen-year-old ready to celebrate her birthday. She hit every mark, every beat, not that he expected anything else.

When the music for the adagio started a few minutes later, she looked perfectly calm in her element.

Percy had always been told that if you ever had a perfect performance, you should retire the next day, because it would never happen again. That had always been a tongue-in-cheek saying – of course you’ll never have a perfect performance, it meant, no one will, they don’t happen.

But as Annabeth stepped onto pointe for the final set of balances without hesitation or the slightest shake, Percy realized that she could mess up everything in acts two and three and it wouldn’t matter. She had nailed the adagio.

Annabeth stood tall and steady, taking each prince’s hand in her own time, balancing in between them as if her toes were glued to the floor and her body was suspended from the ceiling. She held her balance for so long in between the men, Percy realized, that she had forced the orchestra to wait for her. The conductor looked on, waiting for her to drop her hand into her next partner’s, rather than cuing her take the next step.

Percy smiled, anxious to hug her and congratulated her.

Finally, Annabeth rolled down off point, for the final few steps of the adagio, smiling wide at her own achievement.

Act one finished without any disasters – Annabeth pricked her finger and collapsed and was carried off stage and Piper closed the act.

When Jason stood Annabeth back up off stage, Percy rushed to her, not waiting for her to catch her breath or for the curtain to drop. Her face and chest were sweaty, and she was breathing hard, but her smile was wide and triumphant.

He pulled her into a tight hug, mumbling “you were fantastic” into her bun. She laughed and bounced up and down like she was a child again. Percy wanted to kiss her, but she pulled away, still smiling.

“I have to get changed,” she said pulling away from him to head towards her dressing room.

Percy did a quick pirouette in the wings, letting his arms swing around him without care, the way he would when he was a child.

For the first time all day – for the first time since rehearsal began - he felt ready for his debut.

~*~*~

Percy entrance was much quieter than Annabeth’s, but it wasn’t long before he was alone on a dark stage, taking his solo. This was his introduction to the audience, and he needed to captivate them right away. He didn’t have a fairy dress or pointe shoes, he just had a simple prince costume, the stage to himself, and about two minutes of slow, graceful movements.

“Who is the prince?” One of the ballet masters, Mr. D, had asked Percy in an early rehearsal. “What is he like?”

“The prince is a bit of a lost soul,” Percy responded. “There’s a longing for something else, whether that is love or some other excitement, he just wants something more than the material life he has been born into. He finds that something else with Aurora.”

When everyone else leaves the stage, the prince takes his solo, and it is the chance for the audience to see that longing, that desire.

Percy had not ever had much of a material life, but he understood that deep longing for love and something more than what he had.

He didn’t fear taking up space on the stage – it had been left empty for him. Soon, the lilac fairy would fill it, dream Aurora would enter, and the Prince would find the meaning and purpose in his life. But in this lonely moment, Percy could only rely on himself. He thought about Annabeth, standing so tall on two toes, forcing the orchestra to wait for her to be done, and borrowed some of her confidence, and mixed it with his own desires and longings.

He felt his body begin to sweat as he moved it through the choreography, but it didn’t bother him at all. He relished the feeling of working his body to its limits – turning faster, stretching farther, lifting his partners higher. The choreography wasn’t in his mind; it was in his body, in his heart. He didn’t stand on the stage and think “arabesque into pirouette,” he just thought about the prince, and his journey, and the storytelling. His body did the steps without him thinking about them, but _he,_ the sum of all of his parts, told the story. His body sweat under the stage lights, and his lungs burned from the movement, but he didn’t stop, he didn’t rest, he didn’t falter.

He stretched his leg back farther, he turned faster, and then –

He stopped with the music, trying not to breath too heavily as the scene continued.

When he heard the audience applaud for him at the end of his variation, the memory of what he had done was already fading, as memories of his own performances often did, but when he looked stage left to where Piper would enter, he saw Chiron smiling at him, and he knew he had done well.

~*~*~

As act two came to an end, Percy stepped up onto the bed Annabeth was “sleeping” on, ready to wake her up with one perfect kiss.

Percy mustered up his courage, and, in a voice loud enough that she could hear, but subtle enough that no one would see his lips move, he whispered: “You’re my dream girl,” into her head.

He felt her smile against his lips at the joke. When she sat up, he could tell she was straining to either not laugh or not yell at him. He didn’t mind either way.

~*~*~

As Annabeth held herself up in the final fish dive of the wedding scene, Percy thought _we should both retire tomorrow._

_~*~*~_

Their first show had nearly been perfect. There were small errors Chiron had noticed, and they rehearsed those few steps a few days later. The critics, however, had not noticed such small things, praising bother of their performances (as well as Pipers.)

When the review had come out, Chiron emailed it to the entire company, the email subject simply “!!!!!!!!!!” and the body a simple “good work. See you all tomorrow” and the link to the article.

Annabeth called him crying with joy at the review. Percy shed a few tears himself when she said, “Chiron would be an idiot not to promote you first thing tomorrow.”

~*~*~

Percy didn’t have his hopes up that he would be promoted on the spot, but the good review did boost his confidence throughout the rest of the shows.

The second show went well. There were fewer nerves, but, likewise, less excitement. The third show had a few more issues than either of them would have liked. There was nothing the audience would have noticed, but there were a few improvised steps to avoid a stumble.

Their fourth show, though, they were determined to get perfect.

~*~*~

Percy knocked on Annabeth’s dressing room door about half an hour before the show started. She wasn’t in her costume yet, but her hair and makeup were done.

“I just wanted to wish you luck in private,” he said.

She stood up and walked towards him, pulling him into the room and closing the door behind him. She too his hands in hers again and held them between their bodies.

“It’s our last show,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“I’ve really enjoyed dancing with you. I hope we get to keep doing it.”

Percy, in a moment of fleeting confidence, pulled her hands up to his mouth and gently kissed her knuckles. “I promise we will.”

Annabeth reached a hand up to his face and stroked his cheek. He would have given up any chance at a principal promotion if he could just know what she was thinking in that moment. He didn’t dare ask her.

She pulled her hand away after a minute.

“I’ll see you out there,” she promised, stepping away from him.

“See you out there,” he said, walking out of the dressing room.

~*~*~

When Percy kissed her at the end of act two, he felt Annabeth’s lips rise up to meet his in a way that they never had before. His heart raced as she lifted her torso off the bed to meet him. The stage lights got brighter, the forest set was pulled away to reveal the palace, and Annabeth seemed to glow in the newfound golden light.

~*~*~

As they finished the wedding pas de deux for the final time, Percy suddenly felt overwhelmed with emotions. He wanted a fifth, six, seventh show. But he raised her back onto point out of the fish dive, smiled at her and then the audience.

~*~*~

At curtain call, he earned a standing ovation. He had gotten on the previous nights, but the final one brought tears to his eyes. Beckendorf would be healed by the summer season and would likely take back his roles from Percy. Even if Percy earned a promotion, he was probably going to continue to do most of his partnering with Piper, as they had for the past three years or so.

But still, he tried not to dwell on the fact that the performances had ended. Instead, he forced himself to remember his successes. And Annabeth’s successes. They hadn’t just pulled it off, they had proven people wrong. When he remembered that, he broke out into a wide grin, and stepped to the side to allow Annabeth to come out for her final bow. He clapped and cheered for her along with the audience. He noticed that she was crying, and he hoped it was because she was happy.

When the curtain fell, people shuffled off the stage quickly, desperate to get out of their costumes and make up and to get water. There would be time for hugs and congratulations once they were all comfortable.

Percy noticed, though, that Annabeth wasn’t moving. She was looking around at the stage as the crew began moving set pieces off.

“Annabeth?” Percy said, walking up to her.

She looked at him, smiling at him. He thought for a moment that she was going to hug him again, but she did something more unexpected.

She kissed him.


	8. Agon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “‘Agon’ means ‘contest’ in Ancient Greek,” Chiron told them. “What are you competing for?”  
> Despite the long days of rehearsals, offering them a lot of time and proximity to each other, the two hadn’t talked much since she kissed him after The Sleeping Beauty. Since then, though, it felt like she had been avoiding him. Or maybe he was avoiding her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Wish I had a better excuse for why this chapter took so long, but alas I do not. We are now firmly in the second half of the story. 
> 
> I would really suggest watching this ballet before reading this chapter, as it is stunningly unique. The pas de deux starts around 10:50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud8zVcHPnuM

“‘Agon’ means ‘contest’ in Ancient Greek,” Chiron told them. “What are you competing for?”

That was a rhetorical question. Unlike _The Sleeping Beauty, Agon_ was a short neo-classical ballet with no clear story. The characters, if it could be said to have any, were entirely up to dancers’ discretion.

Soon after _The Sleeping Beauty_ closed, cast lists for the rest of the season went up. Percy and Annabeth had been slotted to dance together again, this time in the pas de deux in _Agon._

Percy had danced in it before in the pas de trois, but never in the pas de deux, only understudying it a handful of times in the last six years, usually under Beckendorf, who, no doubt would be dancing it with Annabeth if he weren’t still injured.

Percy tried not to dwell on his growing anxiety that his new-found success was only the result of a dear friend’s misfortune. Instead, he tried to revel in the fact that he had the opportunity to dance in _Agon_ at all. The music and movements were wholly unique and captivating; it was a 180 from _The Sleeping Beauty_ or _Diamonds,_ and a welcome challenge and change of pace for both of he and Annabeth.

 _Agon_ pushed their balance and flexibility to their limits, especially for Annabeth, as the two of them performed moves together that were more like a circus act than a ballet. And that was its appeal. _The Sleeping Beauty_ had certainly tested their technical strength, especially Annabeth’s, but _Agon_ tested the limits of the human body itself; the contest, it seemed, was between Percy’s muscles and the choreography itself. He and Annabeth, though, didn’t need any help from Balanchine’s work of choreographed madness or Stravinsky’s unsettling string to appear in tense, silent competition with each other. That they carried off all on their own.

~*~*~

Despite the long days of rehearsals, offering them a lot of time and proximity to each other, the two hadn’t talked much since she kissed him after _The Sleeping Beauty._

When she kissed him, Percy’s whole world stopped for a moment, and all he could think about was kissing her more. He wanted to place his hands on her face, pull her closer, deepen the kiss, and finally get a date with her. But the kiss was too short for any of that; it was a little more than a peck, but a little less than a kiss. Annabeth pulled away almost as soon as she had leaned in. She had smiled at him before walking off to her dressing room, leaving Percy stunned on the stage trying to remember his own name.

Since then, though, it felt like she had been avoiding him. Or maybe he was avoiding her.

They moved through the choreography, learning each spin, note, and circus act step that Stravinsky and Balanchine had dared to imagine. It was just them – the raw movements, the dancers, the choreography, and the music. The music dictated the movements, and the movements told the story of the choreography. The dancers and the dance were both in perfect balance with each other. They had to be; Balanchine, from beyond the grave, was forcing them into such precarious positions that one unbalanced step risked total collapse.

They moved quickly, the legs and hips moving ahead of the torso in most movements. Percy helped Annabeth balance on one leg as she wrapped her other leg around his shoulder and neck. He dropped her down into a split, and then lifted her up quickly. He pressed her into the air as she spread her legs in a straddle. It was modern, radical, and seductive. They pushed and pulled away from each other. He followed her around the stage, lifting her up or being pulled by her. He thought about Chiron’s first question to them: what are you competing for?

Percy stood in front of Annabeth, both of them sweaty and trying not to breath too hard as they moved into the most technically challenging move of the dance. Small wisps of her curly blonde hair were pressed onto her forehead with sweat, her cheeks were pink, and her leotard was dotted with sweat patches. Percy knew he looked about the same, thanks to the full-length mirrors inherent to a ballet studio.

Percy held her hand, as she went into a penche, a standing split, while still on pointe. While Percy held her hand to keep her balanced, he quickly dropped to the floor and onto his back, all the while helping Annabeth stay balanced. If he wasn’t aware of her balance, or if he was too close or too far from her, she would drop. It made Annabeth’s balances in _The Sleeping Beauty_ look like child’s play.

Percy dropped on his back, but he was too far forward. He let go of her hand to keep from pulling her forward onto her face, and she dropped out of her balance. Mr. D had the pianist cut the music, and they ran the move again. Annabeth stayed balanced the second time, but barely. They were still off and keeping her up while he went down depended entity on their strength, not their balance. Percy felt her push her hand into his, as she tried to keep herself balance. His arm muscles strained, as he watched her muscles strain in return, the heal of her palm digging into his, her calf and ab muscles flexing as they tried to hold her up despite the circumstances. If they were on stage, they would have counted it a success, considering that Annabeth had stayed on pointe. In the rehearsal room, though, their struggle didn’t go unnoticed, and they ran it again, and again, and again, until Percy could find Annabeth’s balance in his sleep.

~*~*~

“Keep your eyes on each other,” Mr. D told them, “keep the tension throughout.” He walked over to them and re-demonstrated how exactly he wanted them to move. “This dance is a series of challenges. If I go here,” he did one of Annabeth’s steps, “will you follow?” He did one of Percy’s steps.

The repeated the steps themselves. Annabeth looked back to him – the challenge. _Will you follow?_ Percy stepped forward, close behind her.

~*~*~

“Do you think we’re lovers?” Annabeth asked during lunch.

Percy looked up from his salad. “What?”

“In _Agon_ , do you think we’re lovers?”

Percy thought for a moment. The two had to be in some kind of relationship; maybe the relationship was changing. Maybe it was new and growing and scary, or maybe it was old and challenging in other ways.

“There’s certainly an intimacy there,” Percy answered her. “I think, they’re either lovers or maybe they were almost-lovers.”

Annabeth nodded. “And the ending?”

“What about it?”

“Do you think there’s a winner?” Her gray eyes were wide with curiosity for his answer.

“I don’t think there’s a winner,” he told her, “I think they either resolved the issue, or they gave up.”

Annabeth pushed some food around on her plate. “That makes sense. Which do you think it was?”

“I don’t know,” Percy admitted, “but I hope they didn’t give up.”

“Me too.” 

~*~*~

“You haven’t talked to her yet?” Grover asked him.

“No,” he admitted, resting his face in his palms.

Grover leaned back, relaxing into Percy’s couch. “Well no wonder things are weird between you two.”

Percy knew that Grover was right. Nearly every day for two weeks they had danced together, eaten lunch together, and walked to the subway together. And not once had Percy had the balls to just ask, “ _hey what the fuck was that about?”_

“She’s probably not going to talk about it first,” Grover said.

“Why wouldn’t she?”

“Ball’s in your court, dude. She made a move, and you haven’t said anything. She’s probably afraid of being rejected anymore, so she’s just going to pretend nothing happened.”

Percy started straight ahead at the TV, trying to lose himself in the low-volume _Office_ rerun that was playing. “Yeah, but she didn’t give me a chance to do anything. What if she kissed me, realized she didn’t like me, and now is hoping I forget the whole thing ever happened so that she doesn’t have to turn me down.”

Grover exhaled. “You know how you could solve all of this?”

“How?”

“Talk to her.”

~*~*~

Grover was right. Percy knew that. But he still wanted a second opinion. He walked down to the costume shop for his fitting hoping to find Silena. She knew Annabeth well enough. She might have a stronger insight on what the kiss might have meant.

He glanced around the costume shop but didn’t spot her.

“Hey,” he asked Mitchell, “is Silena around?”

“No, she just went home sick,” he told her.

“She puked in my trash can!” Drew yelled from the other side of the room, obviously annoyed and disgusted.

“It was quite the sight,” Mitchell said, almost laughting. Percy scrunched up his face at the image, before heading to Lacy’s workstation for his fitting. 

~*~*~

About forty-five seconds into the pas de deux, they shared a choreographed moment of stillness. They face each other, silently staring each other down, waiting, daring the other to move. Percy looked at her. _Why won’t you talk to me? What do you want from me? Why did you kiss me?_ Annabeth looked back at him, tall and proud, refusing to give an answer.

At the end of the dance, the music ends abruptly, and Annabeth drapes her body over Percy’s in a gentle embrace. He thought about her question again: _Do you think there is a winner?_ Percy thought about the question as he caught his breath, but he still couldn’t figure out an answer. 

~*~*~

They had far more productions of _Agon_ than they had of _The Sleeping Beauty._ They performed about four times a week, every week, for a month. Sixteen shows. Eight hours of rehearsal in the morning and then the show at night. Twelve-hour days full of nothing but some unspoken contest.

Their interpersonal tension didn’t seem to affect Annabeth at all, so much so that Percy began to wonder if it was entirely one-sided. Maybe the kiss was a simple thank you between friends, the result of emotions running high at the close of successful show. Maybe it didn’t mean anything at all.

That possibility didn’t make Percy feel any better.

Still, Percy couldn’t let any of that get the better of him. He had seen Beckendorf in the PT room a few days a week. He was pretty sure he’d be back with the company come May. If Percy wanted to continue to be featured, to be promoted, he couldn’t let whatever was going on with Annabeth stand in the way of that.

The two stood in the wings during the third performance that first week, a random Thursday show for an audience full of old rich people. They watched the pas de trois complete their dance, waiting to walk on stage together and begin. They didn’t say anything to each other, they didn’t hug, they just stood in silence, looking forward.

“Did you ever figure out the ending?” Percy asked her, breaking the silence, as the crowd began to applaud.

Annabeth took a deep breath. “I think I did,” she said without explanation.

The dance progressed as it should until the balancing act. Percy, for just a moment, lost focus on where her balance was. As he dropped, she fell out of pointe. Her penche was still intact, and she simply rolled out of pointe. An audience member unfamiliar with the ballet might have thought it was part of the choreography. But Percy knew that it wasn’t. His stomach dropped, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. The rest of the dance was left.

When the curtain closed and they took their bows, Chiron had the two of them stay on stage and run the balance again. This time, Percy stayed focused. _You know her,_ he thought, _you know her body and her balance. Don’t let her fall._ And he knew his own body, his own balance, better than anyone. Chiron counted out the beats of the music, and Percy dropped right when and where he was supposed to, keeping Annabeth supported and stable throughout. 

“Good,” Chiron said, before having them quickly leave the stage so the next ballet could begin.

~*~*~

“I’m sorry,” Percy said to her as he walked her to the subway.

“For the balance?” She asked. Percy nodded.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” she said, nudging him with her shoulder. “Seriously, it’s okay, it happens. I’ve fallen off pointe with Beckendorf too. It’s a rough move.” Percy furrowed his brow, thrown off by her casual demeanor. He’d watched her beat herself up over falling out of _The Sleeping Beauty_ balances, and that was just in rehearsal. Percy decided not to test his luck. He was relieved that she didn’t seem like she was about to push him in front of a moving train.

“I’m surprised you’re so cool about this. I thought you would claw my eyes right out.”

She shrugged. “Shit happens sometimes. I know you’re a good dancer, we we’re both just a little off,” Percy flushed a bit, “besides, we’ve got 13 more shows left.”

“I can’t believe the season is almost over,” Percy said.

“I know. Feels like we just started.”

Annabeth started down the subway steps ahead of him. Her winter jacket was gone, replaced with a lighter Spring coat. Her winter hat was gone too, replaced with a faded Yankees cap to hide her deflated show hair.

He caught up to her at the turnstile. “Beckendorf will probably be dancing next season,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said, her face and tone neutral. Percy had hoped she’d sound disappointed. Or even elated; at least then he’d have an idea of where he stood.

“Do you think we’ll get to dance together next season?”

Annabeth shrugged. “I hope so. I think we’ve proved we make a good team.” She turned to face him, and for a fleeting moment Percy felt like he had to confidence to pull her in close and kiss her, but that moment blew past them like an express train. Instead, she moved first, pulling him into a quick hug, reminding him not to stress too much about their mistake. She pulled away after a moment, and headed down the stairs to the downtown train, leaving Percy with more questions than answers.

~*~*~

The rest of the month passed without incident. Both of them managed to stay on their feet throughout _Agon,_ and both managed to effectively avoid talking about their feelings in any meaningful way. Percy was starting to think that Grover had been right – maybe the kiss was a congratulations, celebration kiss, and she wasn’t talking about it was because it really didn’t mean anything.

“But if that’s true, should I not ask her out?” He asked Grover over the phone.

“I don’t know, dude. Might be worth it, but …”

“But what?”

“Wasn’t she engaged, like, a year ago?”

“Yeah? So?”

“So, she was getting married to a guy she had been with for, what? A century. And that ended not even a year ago.”

“So, it’s too soon to ask her out?”

Grover sighed. “I’m not going to tell you not to do it, but she might not be ready for something yet. It might not have anything to do with you.” Percy nodded, which of course, Grover couldn’t hear. “I know you like her, but she might need you to just be her friend right now.”

Percy sat down on his bed and sighed, a wordless admission that Grover was right.

“I’m rooting for you,” Grover told him, “but it might not the right time. Doesn’t mean it won’t ever be the right time.” 

~*~*~

The season ended just as it was starting to actually feel like Spring. There wasn’t much ceremony attached to the final shows, just some bows, a few congratulations, and the promise of a great Summer season when everyone came back from break. _A Midsummer Night’s Dream,_ Chiron told them, would be their big summer money maker. Percy could already see the cast list in his head. He’d likely be Lysander partnered with Piper as Hermia, always the shorter, dark-haired girl, while Annabeth would be Helena, the taller, blonde girl, partnered with Beckendorf. Chiron tended to be consistent with his casting of that ballet; Beckendorf had explained to Percy once that it was because of descriptions of the girls in Shakespeare’s play. Percy had thought it was kind of dumb to cast based on the words of a play when ballets, necessarily, were wordless. But as he stood in front of his bathroom mirror, buttoning up the top buttons on his blue collared shirt, he reconsidered his opinion. Maybe wordlessness wasn’t always easier.

~*~*~

Annabeth had invited him to her end-of-the-season company party. It was just fifteen of them or so, mostly principles and soloists, plus Lee Fletcher and Silena. Percy had been to a number of these kinds of parties over the years, and they always tended to be tame but fun affairs, with a decent amount of boozing and storytelling.

Percy stood outside Annabeth’s door, a tray of his mom’s cookies in his hand (“Can I bring anything?” “Actually, if you wanted to bring some of those chocolate chip cookies, I wouldn’t complain”), and listened to Beckendorf loudly tell the story of the time he dropped Annabeth during _Romeo and Juliet._ Percy smiled at the sound of the familiar voice, and then knocked on the door.

Annabeth opened the door after a moment, and she smiled when she saw him. Her hair was pulled over one shoulder, held back with an antique-style comb with green jewels. Her curls almost blended into the pale-yellow dress she was wearing, which seemed to be an early celebration of spring. The dress’s skirt stopped at her knees; her legs were bare, and she wasn’t wearing shoes, although she did have on a pair of light blue ankle socks, likely to cover up the blisters and band-aids that were hard at work healing her feet from the season. She looked charming. Percy felt his heart rate go up as she pulled him into a quick hug to say hello, before taking to tray of cookies away from him to set them on the table.

“Percy is here!” She announced to the room.

~*~*~

Most people were already there when he arrived. He poured himself a small glass of red wine to drink slowly and started to mingle. He laughed at Lee’s husband’s stories of mishaps backstage and on stage in various Broadway productions, he joined Piper and Reyna at chastising Jason when he complained that _Nutcracker_ season was too hard (“You think it’s hard? Try being a woman in the corps! That’s hard!”), and he had toasted to Beckendorf’s announcement that he was planning on dancing in the summer season.

“That’s not all the good news,” Silena added when the toast ended. Everyone paused, waiting for part two. Silena held the silence for a moment, deliberately building anticipation. “We’re having a baby!” She yelled finally. The room erupted with cheers of congratulations, everyone rushing to hug the couple.

“I didn’t think you had it in you,” Piper joked to Beckendorf.

“It’s just my knee that’s busted,” he said, “everything else works just fine.”

“I knew it,” Annabeth said to them.

“You did not,” Silena said back.

“Please,” she said, “Beckendorf has been taking sips of your drink all night. And everyone knows he hates white wine.”

“You, Annabeth,” Beckendorf said, pointing at her, “are too observant for your own good.”

~*~*~

The party was still in full swing an hour later, but it didn’t take long for Percy to notice that Annabeth had disappeared from her own apartment.

“I think she stepped outside,” Piper said, when Percy asked if she knew where Annabeth was.

“Downstairs?” He asked.

Piper pointed to the bedroom. “Fire escape.”

~*~*~

Percy stepped out onto the fire escape. Annabeth was turned away from the window, staring out over the West Village. Percy noticed, then, that the jeweled hair comb was a butterfly. Percy stared at it for a moment, taking in the way its green jewels complimented her yellow hair and dress; the city lights bounced off of it in such a way that for moment, it looked like it was glowing.

Annabeth jumped a little when she heard Percy step onto the fire escape. She had set her wine glass down precariously on the grated bottom but reached down to pick it up when she saw it was him.

“Cute pin,” he said, pointing to the butterfly in her hair.

She touched it, like she had forgotten it was there. “Oh, thanks. It’s Silena’s. Part of her _Titanic_ replica collection.”

“You’re both suckers for a good tragic romance, huh?” Percy joked, walking towards to railing of the fire escape.

“I feel bad for people who aren’t,” she said, gazing out at the village, not looking at him, “tragic ending or not, life always seems a little more lovely in those movies.”

“Everything okay?” Percy asked her.

“Yeah,” she said, rubbing her arms to warm them up. It wasn’t a windy night, but the late March air had an uncomfortable bite to it. “Just wanted some air.”

Percy put an arm around her to try and keep her warm, and she leaned into his chest before drinking the last of her wine. Percy’s heart was pounding hard enough that he was sure she could feel it or hear it as she rested against him. She didn’t say anything about it, though.

She looked up at him, her cheeks pink, maybe from the wine, maybe from the cold. Percy noticed that she had slipped on a pair of shoes, so she wasn’t standing barefoot against the cold metal.

Annabeth shifted. Percy’s arm wasn’t around her anymore. They were standing chest-to-chest, just staring at each other in unchoreographed silence.

 _If I go here,_ Percy thought, placing a hand on her waist, _will you follow?_

The next moment, before Percy could really understand how they got there, they were kissing. Not the quick nearly-peck they had already shared, but real, unquestionable kissing. His arms wrapped around her torso to pull her in close to him as her hands found anchor in his hair.

Just as Percy began to feel certain that the tension between them had shattered completely, Annabeth’s wine glass shattered instead.

The sound of the glass slipping from her hand and splintering on the grate pulled them apart. Before Percy could react to the bits of broken glass that decorated Annabeth’s fire escape and the fire escapes of her downstairs neighbors, Annabeth moved away from him and gripped the railing.

“Annabeth?” He asked.

Her breath was heavy and labored, like she had just broken through the surface of the ocean after being submerged without air for minutes. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

Percy moved close to her but didn’t touch her for fear of making it worse. “You don’t have to be sorry. Can I get you anything?”

Annabeth shook her head. “Just … please don’t hate me.”

Percy rested his hand on hers. “You know that would never happen.” He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles to try and get her hand to relax. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She took a deep breath. This one seemed to be easier for her to take in. Her breathing began to regulate, and after a moment, she said, “Yeah. I guess we should.” She pulled her hands off the railing and shook them around a bit, like she was trying to expel her anxiety out of her fingertips. “I don’t want you to think that I’m leading you on,” she said after a moment.

Percy’s face fell. She didn’t like him after all. “Oh. Okay. Thanks for being honest –”

She cut him off. “But I don’t want you to think that I just kissed you because you were just some hot guy who was around.” Percy furrowed his brow. “Fuck, let me just, start over.”

“Okay.”

Annabeth took a deep breath. “I like you. A lot. Of course, I do. You are so kind, and so understanding,” she moved close to him and held his hand, “and you are too cute for your own good,” she said. “I’m just not ready. I …” she took a paused and stepped back from him, leaving about a foot of space between them. “I am so afraid of being in a relationship again. Not because I think you’d do anything to hurt me, or that I wouldn’t recognize if you were hurting me. It’s that,” she paused again, “when I was with Luke, I learned how to just say yes to anything he wanted. He didn’t want me to wear something? I didn’t wear it. He didn’t want me to watch _Moulin Rouge,_ I didn’t watch it. Don’t hang out with him? I didn’t hang out with him? Don’t go out with her? I didn’t go out with her. It was so much easier to just say yes than to fight with him about it.

“When I kissed you after _Sleeping Beauty_ or just now, it was because I forgot to be afraid. But I always remember again.

“And just before, I wanted to keep kissing you so badly, not just because I think you’re cute and think you’re a great kisser. I wanted to keep going because it would be easy. I wanted to, even though I know I’m not ready for that. And then maybe you would have asked me out. And I would have said yes, because we get along, and you’re so sweet, and I do like you. But also because saying yes is always the easy thing.

“And maybe we would go on that date and have an amazing time. I’m sure we would, actually. But then what happens when one night you want pizza, but I want Chines food, but I don’t tell you I want Chines food, I just agree to order pizza because that’s easier. And then what happens when you say let’s go to Long Island for a get away, but I don’t want to go to Long Island, I want to go to New Jersey, but I don’t say that, because it’s easier to just go to Long Island. And then what happens in a year or two when you say: ‘Let’s move in together,’ but I don’t want to move in together, but I do it, because I don’t want to fight?” She was looking slightly past Percy towards the left, like she was imagining a million different futures for them all at once, all of them bad.

“And I don’t think you’re the kind of man that Luke is. But that doesn’t matter. It’s not your shit, it’s mine. I don’t think I’ve learned how to be in a relationship without giving away parts of myself. And I can’t do that again. I just started to get those parts back.

“If I asked you to stay the night, or if we went on that date tomorrow, I would probably have an amazing time. But I might find myself on a beach on Long Island in July wishing tonight had never happened. And I don’t want that. When we go out, I want it to be perfect, so that even if it doesn’t work out, we never hate each other.” She moved close to him again. “I don’t _ever_ want to hate you,” she leaned up and kissed his cheek, “because I want to keep dancing with you.”

Percy wanted to hug her, but he held back. He stared at her face. He wasn’t angry at her. He didn’t feel rejected either. But he wasn’t hopeful. 

In the few silent moments they shared on the balcony, Percy traced his feelings to a deep melancholy resting at the bottom of his chest. He looked Annabeth’s face: her striking gray eyes, her cheeks pink from the cold, and her lipstick a little smudged around her mouth, and he wished he could go back in time just a few minutes and tell his past self to savor that kiss. To kiss back quickly and with intention. To hold onto her for a moment longer. To remember the outline of her lips on yours, the way her hand rested on the back of your neck as you stood there in stunned stillness like an idiot. To react faster. Because that might be the last chance you have.

~*~*~

Percy left the party soon after that, making quick goodbyes only to Piper, Beckendorf, and Silena, before sneaking out the front door.

He woke up feeling hungover, which, considering his solitary glass of wine, he figured was impossible. Still, there was a deep unpleasant feeling in his stomach that kept him from eating breakfast, and a tension behind his eyes that refused to subside even after water and a shower.

He thought about turning his phone off and wallowing in misery in front of the TV all day, but he decided his pity party would be more fun with one more person.

He was halfway through trying to convince Grover to come commiserate with him, when his phone started to ring.

_Miami, FL._

Percy nearly ignored it, figuring it was some scam call about an extended warranty on a vehicle he didn’t own, but those calls were usually from New York numbers.

He answered expecting a bot.

“Hello?” He asked.

“Is this Percy Jackson?” An older woman asked him.

“This is he.” He sat up straighter on the couch as if she could hear his posture.

“This is Lupa Lopez from Miami City Ballet.”

Percy heart started to beat faster. “Hi, Ms. Lopez, how are you?”

“I’m great, thanks. I was just in New York a few weeks ago and caught your performance in _Sleeping Beauty.”_

“Really?”

“Yes, you were excellent. I still remember your audition for our company. I always knew you’d be great.”

Percy’s heart was beating even faster, unsure why she was calling, but flattered to hear that she remembered him. “Thanks,” he finally managed.

“Of course,” she said. “I was calling to see if you’d want to come down to Miami for a month or so and guest in our Spring season?”

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: none of the characters are based on real life ballerinas, nor do I mean to shade any dancer, company or choreographer. 
> 
> Disclaimer 2: I am not a dancer, just a huge fan of ballet. 
> 
> Please let me know if you have any questions about the dancer language.


End file.
